Abstract
The more I watch Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) in the context of the burgeoning industry of artificial intelligence and robotics, the more I appreciate the film’s insightful and nuanced comment on the field. Inspired by fiction, much like the mecha David who takes the story of Pinocchio literally, the roboticists Kubrick invited to consult on the film believe they can bring machines to life. The fairy–tale journey of the robot boy who is programmed to want to be ‘real’ enough to win maternal love that drives the plot clashes sharply with the wider framing of this film with its dystopic prologue and post-apocalyptic afterword that records the gradual disappearance of all human and non–human animal life. This clash is, I would argue, the point as it intimates our troublesome relationship to technology that has us dreaming of immortality even as it courts disaster.
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