Imagine your boss is driving you mad. The meeting ran too long. The deadline moved again. The overtime request arrived at 6 pm. You cannot exactly flip the table.
So what if you could put your boss on your computer screen instead — as a tiny digital pet that crawls around, kneels, apologises and serves you tea?
That is the idea behind a quirky new trend emerging among young workers in China, where AI desktop pets are being turned into miniature digital versions of bosses and other people they dislike.
It sounds like workplace revenge designed by a software engineer. And, in a way, it is.
So, how do you turn your boss into a pet?
The technology is surprisingly simple. According to the South China Morning Post, users can upload a photograph of a person and enter prompts into an AI application to create a customised digital character. Those who cannot make one themselves can pay for the service, with prices ranging from about 9.9 yuan to several hundred yuan.
Freedom Issue 2026 #
14 Aug 2026 - Vol 05 | Issue 33
Shashi Tharoor on being radical liberal | Ram Madhav on how Gandhi used his Hinduism | TCA Raghavan on a diplomat's travels in history | Sumana Roy on the novel beyond the Booker | Carlo Pizzati on the dissolution of Borders
Read Now Freedom Issue 2026 The result is not the old-fashioned virtual pet that simply walks back and forth across your desktop. AI has given these characters more personality — and more possibilities. They can be made to respond to instructions and perform particular actions. Which is where things get interesting.
What can an AI boss-pet actually do?
Quite a lot, apparently. In early August, an internet user known as Jiuyuechushi created an AI desktop pet modelled on Elon Musk to demonstrate how easily a real person could be transformed into one.
The digital Musk could kowtow, serve tea and even slap himself. It could also be made to appear as though it was struggling when dragged around with a computer mouse or climbing along the edge of a webpage.
Another user, known as “Miss Reese Loves to Dream”, shared a tutorial showing how to turn a disliked person into a digital pet that crawls across the screen, kneels and says, “I was wrong.” Other examples reported online include boss-inspired characters programmed to say things such as “no more overtime” or ask for a promotion and pay rise.
In other words, the office hierarchy gets flipped — but only on the screen.
Is this really about bosses?
Not entirely. The trend is being used as a playful outlet for workplace frustration, but AI pets are also finding a much softer role. Some people are creating digital versions of pets that have died.
An internet worker reportedly turned her golden British Shorthair cat into a desktop companion. The AI pet could remind her to drink water and take breaks, offering a comforting digital presence during the workday.
So the same technology can serve two very different emotional purposes. One person gets a digital cat to feel close to a lost companion. Another gets a digital boss to make him kneel.
Why are AI pets suddenly taking off?
The basic idea is hardly new. Virtual pets have been around since the early 2000s, appearing on computers and messaging platforms as small animated characters that wandered across screens while people worked or browsed the internet. But those pets were largely limited to predetermined actions.
Generative AI changes the equation.
A photograph can become a character. Prompts can determine how it behaves. And instead of simply watching a pet move around, users can interact with it and customise its responses. That makes the technology much more personal. And much more mischievous.
But can you legally turn your boss into a digital punching bag?
This is where the joke gets more serious. Legal experts warned that turning a real person into an AI character without their consent could create legal problems, particularly when the depiction is derogatory.
China has legal protections around portrait rights, meaning the unauthorised use of someone's likeness can potentially create liability. So while making your manager crawl across your desktop might feel like harmless office catharsis, publishing or distributing a humiliating AI version of a real person is another matter.
What does this strange trend say about work?
Perhaps that AI is becoming a new language for frustration. Workers have always found ways to complain about bosses — over coffee, in group chats, in private messages and in jokes that never make it into the meeting room. Now they can apparently build the boss a tiny digital body and make him apologise on command.
For a few minutes, at least, the power dynamic belongs to the person holding the mouse.