I am not quite sure what I think. There are a lot of fun and fascinating ideas at work here, that I have really enjoyed. I think part of why I am not sure what to think is the various surprises during the story. The surprises just kept coming, but I wasn't reading it expecting to many surprises. I was reading it expecting it to follow a more "normal" path, if that makes sense.
If there had been some hints or suggestions earlier on that something big was coming then it might have flowed better. Then again, it might have just spoiled the surprises.
I really enjoyed the technical details and comments, since that helped to flesh out the story, what was happening and why / how. This helped me to follow and visualise how and why all of this was happening.
On reflection though, I think that I had more emotional connection with, and "interest" with the AI than with Phil, which was really quite sad. I loved the AI point of view, and how it seemed quite focussed on finding and following this goal, and with time we learned how come it was working like that. But given that Phil was the focus of events, I do feel that we should have had more focus on his feelings, thoughts and how he was reacting to and viewing all of this.