Steven Spielberg's "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" foretold our solitude

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Steven Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” foretold our solitude
Spielberg's divisive 2001 film looks far more prescient 25 years on, tackling the ChatGPT era with alarming urgency

By Coleman Spilde
Senior Writer
Published June 28, 2026 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Despite his work existing on a massive blockbuster scale, Steven Spielberg has always had a knack for appealing to the individual. He’s a student of life as much as he is filmmaking, a humanist who forges connections with spectacular sights of the things that frighten and fascinate us the most. It’s part of what makes him such a gifted storyteller: Spielberg is unafraid to reach through the haze that clouds our fears, grab the thing that terrifies us by the neck — be it dinosaurs, aliens, sharks, wars or politicians — and pull it into clear view.

Perhaps that’s why, when Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” was released 25 years ago this month, it wasn’t exactly the runaway summer hit audiences had come to anticipate from the director. The story appeared bizarre in a way that even Spielberg couldn’t make relatable, which is saying something, considering he was the man who reminded us that rich people would consider a dinosaur theme park a viable enterprise. Set in the 22nd century, when a portion of the human race has been wiped out by climate change, “A.I.” follows a young, humanlike robot boy named David (Haley Joel Osment), the first of his kind programmed to love. David is given to Henry and Monica Swinton (Sam Robards and Frances O’Connor), whose son, Martin, rests in suspended animation after falling ill. He is a test of sorts. Monica may spend time with David and choose whether she’d like to activate his imprinting feature, triggering a familial love that looks and feels as real as her biological son’s — at least to David.

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A quarter of a century later, we know that’s no longer true. People talk to their AI chatbots like real people, as if engaging in constant conversation with ChatGPT or Claude were a form of imprinting — the more they get to know your personality, the better they serve you. Users go to AI bots for everything from recipes to life and relationship advice, even forming one-sided platonic or romantic relationships with the ones and zeroes that make up this digital ether behind a screen. People treat AI chatbots like primitive versions of David in Spielberg’s film, projecting humanity onto technology in ways that pull them further from their fellow humans and closer to their screens, dulling their ability to feel on their own terms.

....(snip)....

In a chillingly analogous sit-down on “The Tonight Show” last December, Sam Altman — the co-founder of OpenAI, which spearheaded society’s great trek toward stupidity that is ChatGPT — spoke to Jimmy Fallon about recently becoming a father. After some light conversation about the joys of parenting and toy trucks, Fallon tossed his guest what would, for America’s mildest talk show host, be considered a gotcha question: Does Altman use ChatGPT to assist in raising his baby?

“I do!” Altman responded with glee, seemingly expecting more than nervous laughter from the audience. “I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT. Clearly, people did it for a long time with no problem. But I have relied on it so much.” ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/06/28/steven-spielberg-ai-artificial-intelligence-anniversary-predicted-chatgpt-anthropormorphizing/