WALL-E

WALL-E follows the story of one solitary garbage-collecting robot on a barren and trash-filled earth. Humanity has coated the once pure planet with garbage, due to their own negligence and lack of care. This reflects the way in which we treat our environment today. WALL-E’s sole goal in life is to assist in compacting and cleaning up this garbage. He has learned to repair himself with parts and collects mementos, or trinkets that he finds valuable as he works. One day, a robot named EVE comes to evaluate the planet. WALL-E falls in love with her, sparking the rest of his journey as he meets many other robots, all with their own designated tasks. A malicious AI named AUTO has taken over the ship, keeping the humans aboard fat and happy to maintain control. Our dynamic duo manages to thwart AUTO, stopping its mechanical control and allowing humanity to return to Earth along with a plant that EVE had managed to save.

Characterization of AI

Artificial Intelligence

The film presents AI as being a form of assisting humans and making their lives better. Each robot has a specific goal and is built to serve that one purpose. On the spaceship that WALL-E and EVE travel to, the basic needs of all the humans are met by the robots. The movie wants us to recognize the important role that robots can and will play in our lives in the future, while also making sure that when we permit their assistance, we do not go so far as to give up total control for the sake of comfortability (Ung). It presents AI in a very positive light, making us want to root for our two artificial protagonists.

Malicious AI

One thing to note in the movie is that the robot's takeover of the spaceship is not necessarily malicious in nature. Looking forward, many find this to be the most likely option for any sort of robot takeover.. An AI uprising is entirely possible, but the odds are that it would be to improve the lives of humans, as they could complete tasks much more efficiently by stripping us of all of our input. It would see that it could complete the same tasks that we would, only much faster, and much more efficiently. The other possibility is that a robot is made intentionally for the purpose of harming humans or going against their better interests (Henderson). This is the case with WALL-E’s AUTO, which has a hidden directive of keeping humanity away from Earth. This is because the plans to restore the Earth to its former glory have failed, with our protagonist, WALL-E, being the only of his kind to survive.

The Experts

Emily Ung explains thoroughly, “The type of movie WALL-E fits into is probably one of the most accurate representations of AI today. That is due to the fact that we already have some similarities, such as machines with the task of doing a specific job.” It depicts robots occupied with a single task, with processing that is even being seen in things like GPT-4 nowadays. We have Roombas, simplistic robots capable of vacuuming a home. There are AI chatbots, that can solve menial customer support tasks digitally. There are even bots that can perfectly cook a meal for you, the exact same way, every single time. WALL-E has predicted the future of artificial intelligence perfectly and even commented on our human nature towards laziness, and using technology to remedy the problems that we have made due to our own irresponsibility (Ung).

Humanity

However, the movie presents a warning as well. It shows the humans as fat, lazy, and complacent, allowing the AI in control to take over and create an authoritarian rule. It wants us to recognize that if we give AI too much control, it would easily be able to strip us of all of our control. If we are complacent, we will be unable to unite against artificial intelligence as it can slowly creep and take over our freedom.

Here we can see AUTO attempting to destroy the plant and WALL-E. The plant would mean that humanity would have a reson to return back to earth, which goes directly against AUTO's directives.