Rewatching 'A.I.' in the Age of AI

"My brain is falling out."

It's one of the more memorable lines of dialogue from the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. It also happens to be the way I feel when I realize that the movie came out 24 years ago. Do you know which movie came out 24 years before A.I. was released in 2001? Star Wars.¹ So yeah, it has been a bit. So long ago that the producers clearly felt the need to literally spell out what "A.I." stood for in the title. These days, no explanation needed. As such, I thought it might be fun/interesting to rewatch the film in our current age of AI.

First and foremost, the movie holds up fairly well – as you'd hope for a movie written and directed by Steven Spielberg, who took the project off the hands of... Stanley Kubrick.² And that's especially true for a movie that's centered around future technology and again, is basically a quarter-century old. It is never explicitly revealed what year A.I. (when talking about the film, I'll use the periods to differentiate versus the technology) takes place. And aside from the humanoid robots a few other, smaller details, such as the tri-wheeled cars and newfangled neon cities, you might think it was set in current times.³ Well aside from the fact that New York City is underwater.⁴

Still, the early reference/statement about climate change doesn't help date the movie. Luckily we have a tool for that in the form of, what else: AI. ChatGPT suggests that A.I. is meant to be set in 2142 (based off of various details from the production of the movie). That would have been 141 years after the actual release date of the movie. And 117 years from now. Knowing that – which again, we're not meant to – may be the most unrealistic part of the whole film. While I appreciate that it doesn't look like the Jetsons, it undoubtedly undercooks just how far everyday technology will have advanced by then. Notably, they still read print newspapers. I kid, I kid. (But I probably also don't, sadly.). But really, the computers they're using seem... pretty dated.

Oh yes, and no one has a smartphone...

Granted, by then, we may indeed have implants for such computing needs. Hopefully our technology will have evolved beyond what we currently think of as smartphones by then! But nothing implies that's the case in the movie.⁵ They just go about their lives not connected 100% of the time. Well, aside from you know, the robots. Who are connected all of the time, it seems.

So perhaps that's also some sort of commentary on the world. Maybe humans rebelled against such invasive technology consuming our daily lives. Or perhaps the whole climate change subplot had something (unstated) to do with it. Maybe resources for such things are scarce and spent elsewhere? Then again, we have robots. And really, I think it's probably just safe to assume no one has smartphones – or smart glasses or smart contact lenses or brain implants – because 2001 was six years before Apple released the iPhone. Smartphones were still mainly called PDAs (personal digital assistants) at the time. It wasn't entirely clear that such devices would take over the world in the way they have. Or maybe the producers just didn't want to deal with all that – it's not the point of the movie.

The point of the movie is actually far more interesting, technology-wise. It's AI, of course. But it's also a statement about what it means to be human. And what it means to not be human. And about loss. And ethics. And yes, our future.

Again, with all of those themes in mind and taking aside the actual day-to-day technology of the film, it holds up pretty well. David, the main humanoid robot (termed "mechas" in the film) is built to look like a real human boy. As is made clear at various points, he's by far the most realistic-looking and acting robot ever created.

And early scene shows Allen Hobby – an entrepreneur and professor – giving a lecture to students about the current state of AI. He casually notes that while they've made machines that can beat chess they haven't yet cracked the code on making ones that dream. A mildly creepy demonstration with a female humanoid robot ensues and Hobby ultimately pulls out the square computer chip powering her. He clearly wants to create a robot that can love and be loved – not ones that are just programmed to. To help families.

Well, they do just that. And while they don't go into the technical details of the AI involved, it's clearly an advancement on decades of previous AI iterations. At one point, there's a robot who notes that he was Time's "Mecha of the Year" 75 years ago. Knowing the date, as we now do, that would have been 2067 – that's 42 years from now. Having a humanoid robot by then certainly seams more than feasible given our current pace of AI advancements. That mecha probably seems rudimentary, if anything. But it may end up being one of those things where you get very far quickly, then the last 10% is the really hard part. Especially in the real world. See also: self-driving cars.

Anyway, it's arguably more interesting to think of David in relation to Teddy, the Teddy Ruxpin-like "super toy" who serves as David's sidekick throughout the film.⁶ Teddy is an AI that can seemingly do much of what David can but simply doesn't look human. The fact that neither apparently needs to be charged is arguably the most interesting element of their technology. Though that's never explained so perhaps we can just chalk it up to a shortcut the filmmakers decided to take. Still, I choose to believe they're self-charging, somehow.

One other thing the robots must not do: eat. When David eats some spinach at one point, his face literally melts. And some technicians have to come to clean up his circuits with some sort of vacuum. They can swim though. And in fact, stay submerged in water seemingly indefinitely.

The "love" element of David happens after he's delivered to his family and they're sure they want to keep him (an interesting concept). Before that, David acts more like a robot, perhaps even like he has Asperger’s. But after his "mother", Monica, "imprints" him, he starts acting more emotional.

But then the family's real son wakes up from his coma and this is obviously not great news for David. The family tries to make it work, but the son is also sort of a dick. And when another boy tries to trigger David's "DAS" (Damage Avoidance System), he brings his "brother" into the pool with him, setting in motion the beginning of the end of David with his family. David pleads with Monica that "I'll be so real for you" and asking if he can come home if he becomes a "real boy" – which is truly heartbreaking.

Hey Joe, What Do You Know?

From here, we go into a second act largely built around an adventure with Joe – a sex bot, seriously! – trying to find the "Blue Fairy" from Pinocchio, who David believes will be able to turn him into a real boy, just as in the book. Instead, they wind up at a "Flesh Fair" – which is sort of like a monster truck rally, except they aim to destroy humanoid robots which have since been discarded. This whole scene is an interesting statement on sentience and empathy. Clearly, the robot bounty hunter, Lord Johnson-Johnson (excellent name, which I had to look up), has been wronged in some way by these "mechas". In general, he speaks to the crowd as a preacher might, talking about how he believes these machines were created to "steal your hearts and replace your children".

David and Joe narrowly escape because of how real David seems. The crowd simply refuses to believe that any company would make a robot that is so human-like in child-form. And so they turn on Lord Johnson-Johnson.

At this point it is revealed that Professor Hobby has lost a child, David.⁷ And the mecha David was created in his exact image. And now knowing that Monica has abandoned the boy, his team is out searching for this David in the wild.

But David and Joe (and Teddy) are off to Rouge City sort of like an even more garish and sexualized Las Vegas. Or a slightly less sleazy Atlantic City. This is a place Joe knows well given his profession, and so he knows that this is where they'll find Dr. Know. This character is probably the most interesting one as it relates to our current world of AI, because he's essentially a LLM-based chatbot! Albeit one with a holographic body who looks like a cartoon version of Albert Einstein as voiced by Robin Williams with an Einstein-like German accent.

But unlike our current batch of LLM bots, Dr. Know is a bit of a swindler. He takes money left and right for accidental questions. Have I mentioned there's still physical money in 2142? Granted, it's "newbucks" – perhaps it's their Bitcoin? Two questions cost 5 newbucks and you get one for free with that. “In this day and age David nothing costs more than information," Joe notes.

Again, Dr. Know feels like something we already have right now. He's sort of ChatGPT with a mustache and an attitude, looking to make a newbuck just like everyone else. So perhaps he's more like Grok. I do love that he's "in" 40,000 locations. Which I guess could just mean that's where they have his stations set up. But obviously anyone in the world can use an LLM chatbot on their smartphone from anywhere right now in 2025.

David manages to "break" Dr. Know by asking him a specific question in a specific way about finding the Blue Fairy. Watching it, I was reminded a bit of the early hacks of BingGPT to invoke "Samantha". Basically, David brute-forces his way into Dr. Know's psyche, it seems. And that hidden mode tells them they must go to Manhattan for find what they're looking for.

This scares Joe as clearly he's only heard horror stories about MANhattan, where mecha go and never come back. This makes him launch into a rather interesting rant about the motivations of and mistreatment by mankind. "What if the Blue Fairy is an electronic parasite that has arisen to haunt the minds of artificial intelligence? They hate us, you know. The humans. They’ll stop at nothing," Joe tells David. When David pushes back, Joe tells him that Monica simply loved what you do, not actually you, and she can't because you're not flesh and blood.

And then Joe blames that hatred on the fact that he clearly believes that human beings overdid it with the robots. "They made us too smart, too quick, and too many. We are suffering for the mistakes they made. Because when the end comes, all that will be left is us… That’s why they hate us." This is interesting, poignant, and ultimately true, as we'll soon enough see.

MANhattan

After a narrow escape from the authorities, they're off to Manhattan in a stolen police helicopter. This is where it's revealed that the city is underwater – it's the "lost city in the sea at the end of the world." But apparently humans still live and work in the parts of skyscrapers that remain above the water. That seems... pretty dangerous, not to mention inconvenient, but it's cool, visually. As is the W.B. Yeats poem etched into Processor Hobby's office door. Clearly, the creation of mecha David is a bit of an obsession for him – the title of that poem? 'The Stolen Child'.

And just to further drill home the point, in Hobby's office, David finds... another David. He's just sitting there reading and clearly eager for company. This naturally freaks out our David because he believes he was the only David and unique in every way – otherwise, Monica, his mother, won't love him. "I'm David! I'm special! I'm unique!" So yeah, David #2 is a problem. But nothing that a little swinging of a lamp at a mecha head can't handle.

Down goes David #2. In comes Professor Hobby.

He's delighted to see David, and doesn't seem at all concerned by his mecha-cidal tendencies (continuing a theme on the value of such "life"). "But you are a real boy. At least as real as I’ve ever made one. Which by all reasonable accounts would make me your Blue Fairy." Professor Hobby could use some lessons in bedside manner.

He reveals that they hacked Dr. Know to inject the message David found, sending him to Manhattan. You'd think they could have been more direct if they were doing to do that, but it was all a test of sorts. "Where would your self-motivated reasoning take you? To the logical conclusion?" Hobby clearly believes that David has clearly had some sort of artificial intelligence breakthrough seemingly tied to his emotions in not only having a "dream" but chasing it down.

When David starts to cry, telling Hobby he thought he was one of a kind, Hobby starts crying too noting that "my son was one of a kind." And when he tells David that he was "the first of a kind" the movie kicks the dark turn into another gear. This is where David says his brain is melting and when Hobby goes to fetch his team to inspect David, he leaves the robot to wander right into... the creepy David factory. We get Davids hanging on hooks. Davids in retail boxes (alongside Darlenes, the little girl version). Um, one of the boxes is moving! Next thing we know, David is sitting on the ledge of the building looking down into the water. Thinking about Monica, he falls forward.

Joe rescues him in the helicopter (which can also go underwater) but it's pretty clear that's where David wishes to be. So when Joe gets caught with the great last line – "I am. I was." – David and Teddy dive back into the ocean in the watercopter. They find their way to a submerged Coney Island where yes, there's a Blue Fairy. And there they park.

For 2,000 years.

The Ice Age

I recall seeing this bit in theaters and being amazed. At two hours, everyone assumed this would be the end of the movie but now, we get a third act sent 2,000 years in the future. That year, again, not stated, but we know is 4142. The oceans of New York are now all ice. We pull back to reveal an alien ship traversing the landscape. But actually, it's not aliens. It's alien-looking robots. Future AI!

As relatively low-tech as 2142 was, 4142 is wild with their flying cubes (which hover apart when no longer needed – very cool) and translucent humanoid bodies. These robots don't speak to each other in words, let alone English, because why would they? They communicate in each others' heads. Which reminded me of this.

These future robots are excavating old human sites trapped in the ice and find David and Teddy. They immediately recognize the opportunity: these are robots that actually knew humans. Yes, all the humans are dead; only robots remain on Earth.

They're able to put David into a sort of debug/boot mode using some future wireless protocols. And soon we're seemingly in David's head – where his new robot friends have re-created Monica's old home. But Monica isn't there because, as one robot explains to David, they're only able to recreate people when they have some DNA from them. Teddy to the rescue. He saved a lock of Monica's hair that David (very creepily) cut one day when they were all still together. Teddy for the win.

But it's at this point that we enter exposition land where the future robots explain to the OG robots that while they can now clone Monica, she'll only last for a single day. You see, all of history is woven into space-time and while they can hack on an extension for a day, after that, a being can never come back. It's all a bit too convenient from a plot perspective and I wish they explored that concept more – and specifically, does that mean AI exists outside of the space-time continuum?

Regardless, David gets his day with Monica. One last day. And it's lovely. When she lays down to sleep (thus ending her existence), David does the same. And for the first time he sleeps. And dreams. Teddy watches on.

It's a nice, poignant ending. Again, I just wish it delved more into what this actually says about artificial intelligence. The message would seem to be that some combination of love and longing might be enough to turn a robot into a human for all intents and purposes. But it's muddled. And there's a layer about how even desiring to be human is folly because they will eventually perish. At the same time, the future robots are aiming to recreate humans to understand the "spirit" that would give them a meaning of existence. So it's the fairly standard creator narrative: as man looks to God, machines look to man (for meaning).

It's perhaps most interesting that the future robots felt the need to take a human-like form. Is that implying that the very form of human beings is important to sentient intelligence? That's sort of a key to the whole film, in a way.

Overall, A.I. Artificial Intelligence is almost less about AI and more about humanoid robots. It may be suggesting you can't have one without the other, which is certainly an interesting concept in 2025. But perhaps we have 117 years to think about this. More likely less than that. Far less.

After all, Dr. Know is basically ChatGPT right now.

¹ And Steven Spielberg's own Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

² Also produced by one Kathleen Kennedy...

³ This stands in contrast to Minority Report another futuristic film which Spielberg directed just a year later -- the man was prolific at various points! That movie more clearly takes place in a time roughly 50 years in the future as they famously did a lot of work pre-preduction to create realistic technology for the era. And some of it is getting close already!

⁴ And the most unsettling part of that shot is not the fact that NYC is underwater, but that the World Trade Center twin towers are still standing -- as the movie was released in June 2001...

⁵ In fact, at one point, David picks up a physical, old-school telephone!

⁶ "Super toy" is a reference to "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" the short story by Brian Aldiss that was the basis for film, which Kubrick initially acquired the rights to in the 1970s.

⁷ I would also note here that the late, great William Hurt, who plays Professor Hobby, definitely has a resemblance to Steve Jobs, which is an interesting, if unintentional layer to all of this.