Did they say she had a soul? I thought it was just that they could bring her back, but only once and for one day. From the IMDB:
Bringing her back gives her one extra day, and then she fades away back to the oblivion she would have been in if they hadn’t brought her back. David isn’t even only thinking of himself - he loves her so much he genuinely thinks she might be special.
Another quote from the IMDB:
I think it’s pretty certain that the creatures that looked like superadvanced robots in a film called Artificial Intelligence were, indeed, robots.
I’m not sure what the debate is about. I watched the movie until the very end and didn’t see any alien-looking robots, just some kid robot staring at a blue fairy forever.
Either it’s coincidence - they wanted a human-like form but more flexible and silvery because of the robot ‘ancestry,’ or it’s intentional: they wanted them to look a bit alien.
The supermecha don’t have the grays’ usual huge black eyes, though, and they’re much taller, and you can see what looks like circuitry and electric sparks in their heads.(Like here).
I guess the fact that some people managed to miss that they were robots shows how much viewer were unengaged by that part of the movie. If I had the script I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a quote that made it even more clear what they are.
They were robots. I didn’t even have the tiniest thought in the back of my head that they might be aliens. That’s an interesting interpretation, though.
They visually looked like advanced robots to me.
The whole plot of the movie would lead to the idea of humans and robots eventually merging as a species in the future.
They did computery stuff like sharing video files between them.
I always figured the silvery humanoids were highly evolved robots – the descendants, as it were, of Gigolo Joe and David and all the robots we saw getting torn up at Flesh Fairs. That’s the perfect ending to the story – what the more excitable humans feared, that humanity would go extinct and robots would replace it, is exactly what has come to pass.
Yes, they were robots (or “mechas,” to use the parlance of the film). No doubt.
I liked the movie very, very much, even though I was keenly aware of how adroitly Spielberg was pushing my sympathy buttons. And although it wouldn’t have been as powerful an ending, I have to admit, I wondered why the superadvanced mechas didn’t simply create a mecha who looked, talked, felt and acted just like David’s mom, so they could be happy together for eternity. Given their capabilities, you’d think it would be a snap.
BTW, for a pretty good (but not wonderful) sf book about a Solar System populated by robots after the unexplained passing of humanity, check out Charles Stross’s Saturn’s Children.
What do you want them to look like? Autobots!! TRANSFORM!!!?
Actually, there really isn’t any reason they should look like anything recognizable in particular. Or for that matter, exist as anything other than some massive AI server farm/factory that manufactures purpose-built remote controlled drones to perform whatever physical tasks are required (mining, fixing shit, tearing David limb from limb, whatever).
The narrator states only 2000 years have passed, which in my opinion lends more support to the “robot” theory (on the grounds that it’s unlikely aliens were already here or would arrive in that amount of time).
As for why it appears more time has passed:
This should maybe be considered only semi-canonical, but the ARG “The Beast” developed to promote the movie provided some explanation of what happened. I know that Microsoft developed the game, but I don’t know how much influence the movie’s producers had in the story.
That story took place about 100 years after most of the events of the movie. It turned out that a network of miniature robots used to control the weather (they essentially were seeded into the oceans to change the albedo) became self-aware and decided to do away with humanity. They formed an alliance with a number of other humanoid robots, who by that time were ubiquitous. The weather was changed to make the earth mostly frozen, which explains why the ice is so thick where David is, and what killed off the humans.
