Comparing I, Robot and A.I. Artificial Intelligence by Corben Colson

Plot Overview

corbencolson — 2024-11-05 15:25:03 UTC

This futuristic Steven Spielberg film is set in a distant utopian society where the effects of the rising tides due to climate change have wiped out many cities, leaving the world smaller and overpopulated. The government has imposed regulated pregnancies to reduce the population. This society also is widely populated with robots of many uses, such as workbots, sexbots and recently, the robot child who can love; David. David is brought into a family as a replacement for their comatose son Martin. The parents Monica and Henry are suspicious of David at first, but Monica imprints onto David, teaching him to love. Martin eventually wakes up from his coma and is introduced to David. Martin becomes jealous of David and competes with him for the love of their mother. After an incident where David cuts Monica's hair, he is brought out into the woods to fend for himself. David is overwhelmed with guilt and defeat, so he sets off on a quest to find the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio to make him a real boy.

Character #1: David

corbencolson — 2024-11-05 15:30:53 UTC

David is created for the Swinton family to replace their comatose son Martin. After Martin wakes up and David is abandoned, he sets off on a quest with the help of a lover bot named Gigolo Joe to find the Blue Fairy in the hopes that she can make him real. Along the way, he ventures though Rouge City and is led to Manhattan to meet with his creator and to finally see what he was made for.

Character #2: Gigolo Joe

corbencolson — 2024-11-05 15:35:42 UTC

Gigolo Joe is a lover robot designed for sexual intercourse with women. He is tall, well-built and handsome, all amazing qualities to have in a mate. However, he finds himself exiled from the city and meets up with David to aid him on his quest to seek out the Blue Fairy

AI Portrayal

corbencolson — 2024-11-05 15:40:24 UTC

The AI in this film are all unique and all serve (or served) a purpose in society. From household bots, to chefs, drivers, sex bots and many more jobs taken over by AI. This is shown well in Rouge City, where most of the beings you see are robots walking around, living and serving their only purpose.

Technology

corbencolson — 2024-11-05 15:46:15 UTC

As we are set in the distant future, many new pieces of technology have been introduced other than the the AI. We're shown a remote looking scanner that acts like an X-Ray to see whether the being is Orga or Mecha. I do not know of any mention of this kind of tech in our society, but it might happen if we are to use AI and robots in every day life.

Ethical Dilemmas and the Societal Impact

corbencolson — 2024-11-05 15:58:22 UTC

David is captured after his abandonment and sent to a Flesh Fair to be destroyed for entertainment. He is brought up on the stage and presented like he is a disease and a disgrace to the human child. He cries for help and begs for his life, which the audience notices. They cry out to let him go, as robots do not beg for their life. He is saved and escorted out by Gigolo Joe. This shows how AI could become so advanced that we might not distinguish it from humans. In this instance it saved his life, but in our world, it could be used for crime and to do harm. With the advancement of robots and AI, they might become our replacement in terms of the species hierarchy.

Rhetorical Devices

corbencolson — 2024-11-06 02:16:05 UTC

This movie's plot is very similar and makes several references to the Disney movie Pinocchio. David is our main character who wishes to become a real boy and seeks out the Blue Fairy to make his wish true. Along the way he is kidnapped and brought into slavery/torture, which he ends up escaping and venturing off to seek out the Fairy

Visuals and Aesthetics

corbencolson — 2024-11-06 02:29:08 UTC

Despite it being set in the future, the environment doesn't look very futuristic at first. Rouge City is our first glance into the more modern society that our movie takes place in, and even then it just looks like Amsterdam's Red Light District. The visuals are very pleasing and impressive for 2001, but I feel like the future setting isn't shown often in the visuals.

Plot Overview

corbencolson — 2024-11-06 13:47:26 UTC

This film is set in the year 2035, where almost everyone has a robot at their service. Detective Del Spooner is our main protagonist, a witty but prejudiced police officer who despises artificial intelligence. His hatred for robots comes from a traumatic car crash that led to the death of a little girl, because the robot wouldn't save her. He is called to work on the suicide of Dr. Alfred Lanning, the genius behind the new line of robots. Spooner discovers many clues in Lanning's office, including a copy of Hansel and Gretel, a huge hole in the bulletproof glass and most importantly, Sonny the robot. Sonny attacks him and escapes into a warehouse, where he is cornered by the police and arrested. After questioning, Spooner sets out to find out if Lanning truly killed himself or if it was murder. As the film goes on, the robots becoming stranger, attacking Spooner twice and almost killing him. This leads him to realize that the robots are planning a revolution to take over. He goes to Lanning's building and discovers that VIKI, the super-AI that's built in the tower, was controlling the robots. Her plan was to eliminate the "bad people" to save the human race. With the help of Sonny, Spooner destroys VIKI and stops the robot revolution.

Character #1: Spooner

corbencolson — 2024-11-06 13:49:49 UTC

This detective is an incredible police officer with a major prejudice against robots. He is paranoid and quick to assume the worst, which always lands him in trouble with his Boss. He is also a fan of retro footwear.

Character #2: Sonny

corbencolson — 2024-11-06 13:53:35 UTC

Sonny is a special robot built by Dr Lanning to purposely disobey the Three Laws of Robotics. Sonny is able to feel human emotions, dream and think for himself and most importantly, able to follow Lanning's orders to kill him.

AI Portrayal

corbencolson — 2024-11-06 13:59:20 UTC

The portrayal of AI in this varies, as the earlier models of the NS-4 robots are shown to try to protect the humans from the NS-5s. VIKI only had control of the NS-5s, which were portrayed as the "evil robots" bent on domination.

Technology

corbencolson — 2024-11-06 14:05:24 UTC

I Robot wasn't the first movie to show self-driving cars, but they definitely inspired the new models seen in today's Tesla cars. These movie models have a steering wheel that you can engage or disengage, diagonal doors and circular wheels for 360 degree driving, as seen in the car chase scene. The Tesla electric cars and Cyber trucks were most definitely inspired by these models.

Ethical Dilemmas and Societal Impact

corbencolson — 2024-11-06 14:09:45 UTC

The biggest ethical issue with robots, especially one like Sonny that think for themselves, is that they can betray the human race. VIKI has already proved it by planning a robot revolution to kill humans for "our own good", what's to say that humanoid ones won't do the same. Putting our complete trust in AI is what's going to lead to our downfall, and it almost was in I Robot. Luckily, Spooner was able to shut VIKI down.

Rhetorical Devices

corbencolson — 2024-11-06 14:12:21 UTC

This movie makes many references and allusions to this children's story. The copy of it in Lanning's office, the "breadcrumb" trail of clues and the betrayal of someone we thought we trusted are all aspects that the stories have in common.

Visuals and Aesthetics

corbencolson — 2024-11-06 14:20:32 UTC

The visuals are much more impressive than the other movie, looking more futuristic and similar to the new line of Tesla bots. The city looks like a standard perception of the future and the robots look very realistic.