Ethical Dilemmas and Identity Construction in Artificial Intelligence (2001): An Analysis from the Perspective of Ethical Literary Criticism

Xiaoxuan Feng, Tian Jiang

Abstract


Utilizing the framework of ethical literary criticism, this study analyzes Steven Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence (2001). The film depicts a climate-ravaged future where David, a childlike robot, is adopted and then abandoned by a human family. His quest to become a “real boy” via the Blue Fairy serves as a narrative core to examine human-robot ethics. The analysis investigates the characters’ ethical predicaments and choices, and explores three core ethical issues: the “human-object” dichotomy framing robots as commodities; human suspicion and hatred toward robots driven by economic competition and existential anxiety; and the subversion of ethical identities as robots assume familial roles. Key findings reveal that: first, despite robotic anthropomorphism, the human-robot relationship remains a hierarchical “subject-object” dynamic; second, the subversion of traditional ethical identities leads to an unresolved ethical predicament in human-robot relationships; and third, David’s choices—from imitation to asserting uniqueness—constitute genuine ethical selection, marking his transformation into a being with emergent self-awareness. This research not only expands the application of ethical literary criticism into science fiction film studies but also provides valuable reflections for addressing ethical challenges in real-world AI development.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.22158/sll.v9n4p5

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