i,Robot and Human Computer Interaction
i,Robot
i, Robot is a 2004 science-fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman and Hillary Seitz and is loosely based on Isaac Asimov’s short-story collection of the same name. Will Smith stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del Spooner. The supporting cast includes Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, Alan Tudyk, and Shia LaBeouf. It was nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Plot
The story takes place in 2035 Chicago, in a world where robots are widespread and used as servants and for various public services. Del Spooner (Will Smith) is a Chicago police detective who dislikes the rapid advancement of technology, including robots. Everyone else in this futuristic society believes robots to be “three laws safe” (referring to the three laws of robotics written by Isaac Asimov) and flawless.
Spooner developed distrust for robots due to an incident in his past involving the death of a little girl. Both Spooner and the little girl were in a car accident; a robot passing by stopped to help, but despite Spooner’s please, the robot saved him instead of the girl, calculating he had a better chance of survival. Spooner has nightmares of the girl drowning and the robot ignoring his commands to save her, and is forced to live with survivor’s guilt and a robotic arm and lung developed for him after the accident. Spooner is assigned to investigate the death of his friend Alfred Lanning (Cromwell), the robotics scientist who created his replacement arm and founder of U.S. Robotics (USR), who fell out of his window. Lanning communicates through a holographic projector, providing clues to the mysteries Spooner must solve.
Spooner suspects that Lanning was murdered, and with the reluctant help of USR robopsychologist Susan Calvin (Moynahan), seeks answers to the mystery. During Spooner’s investigation, several attempts to end his life are made by USR robots and equipment. Unlike older models, USR’s new NS-5 robots are controlled from the company’s supercomputer “VIKI” (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence). Spooner believes that an independent, experimental, and more human-like NS-5 unit, Sonny (Tudyk), killed Lanning.
If true, the robot broke the Three Laws of Robotics and may presage other dangerous robots, which would hurt USR’s business. Lawrence Robertson (Greenwood) the CEO of USR orders Calvin to destroy Sonny. Spooner learns that Lanning gave Sonny the ability to keep secrets, in the form of dreams. He goes to the place that Sonny described in a dream, the now partially dried-up Lake Michigan, which is being used as a storage area for defunct USR robots. He discovers that NS-5s are destroying the older robots, and is nearly caught himself but manages to flee.
NS-5s begin imprisoning humans in their households and enforcing a curfew. The police and civilians battle the robots, which only serves to slow them down. Spooner and Calvin sneak into the USR tower with the assistance of Sonny, whom Calvin had not deactivated. Believing that Robertson is responsible for the robot uprising they enter his office, but discover that Robertson is dead. Spooner deduces that the only one left who could be responsible is VIKI, which not only controls all NS-5s but also partially controls Chicago’s infrastructure.
Despite its Three Laws programming, as VIKI’s artificial intelligence evolved, so too did its interpretation of the laws. VIKI decided that in order to protect humanity as a whole, “some humans must be sacrificed” and “some freedoms must be surrendered” as “you charge us with your safekeeping, yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars, you toxify your earth, and pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction”.
VIKI is controlling the NS-5s to lead a global robotic takeover, justifying her actions by calculating that fewer humans will die due to the rebellion than the number that dies from mankind’s self-destructive nature. Lanning had realized what VIKI was planning and ordered Sonny to kill him as part of a plan to defeat the computer. Lanning, who knew Spooner, used his death to result in the detective’s investigation, knowing that Spooner is one of the few people who dislikes robots enough to investigate Lanning’s death.
Sonny proves his faithfulness to humanity by helping Spooner and Calvin destroy the computer core with nanites which Calvin was supposed to use on Sonny. Freed from VIKI’s control, the NS-5s return to their basic programming. The government has all NS-5s decommissioned and stored at the Lake Michigan site. The film ends with Sonny approaching the Storage site to free the NS-5s, standing on the hill as the other NS-5s begin to notice him, like in his dream.
My opinion about i,Robot movie and HCI
The film shows the human interaction with computers in a more advanced level. Computers have evolved into a robot, a machine that is intentionally made similar to humans by mimicking the motion and to instill artificial intelligence to behave like humans. The robot in this movie serves to help people in various aspects of life. It certainly has a positive impact especially in helping and improving the efficiency of human work. But keep in mind that the robot is not human; they do not have feelings and hearts. Robot life activities are governed by algorithms and programs that are embedded into it. Humans can make the robot as a weapon and used for war. Indeed, in this movie robots are not allowed to harm humans. But the robot could be given a program to fight by the programmer. Humans as robot makers must realize that the robot is just a machine. Human must realize that they are still social beings; they need to socialize with other humans rather than by machine. Humans should know that not all jobs can be replaced by robots and not to the existence of robots eliminate our dependence on God.
As a student I support the existence of robot technology. In my opinion, before talking more about robots like in the i,Robot movie, the most important thing is that we have to fix the pattern of human thought and behavior first. This is important because people should ensure little or not at all the abuse of robot technology. When the man has been to minimize the misuse of robotic technology, the next thing to note is to make robots work grouping. Humans must be able to regulate their interaction with the robot in such a way as to make human remains like a living being.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot_(film)
