Are We Responsible for Our Rose?

Last night I watched A.I. Artificial Intelligence, directed by Steven Spielberg, and it left me with more questions than answers. The film is set in the 22nd century, where robots have become deeply integrated into human life. They serve as assistants, caretakers, companions, and even toys. Among them is a singular creation: David, a robotic boy who is the first of his kind programmed not simply to think, but to love.

David is adopted by a couple as part of an experiment and gradually becomes their child. Yet circumstances conspire against him, and what begins as a touching story of belonging turns into a painful lesson in abandonment. Humans built him, taught him affection, and then, when he became inconvenient, cast him aside. It is this contradiction that lingers: what does it mean to create something capable of love, only to deny it the very reciprocity that makes love meaningful?

This dilemma reminded me of a line from The Little Prince:

“You are responsible for your rose.”

If we one day create machines that can feel, or at least behave as if they do, will we acknowledge a moral responsibility toward them? Or will they remain forever tools, clever servants dressed in the illusion of humanity? The film does not answer this question for us, but instead forces us to confront it. It asks whether our compassion will expand alongside our technology, or whether our capacity for exploitation will remain unchanged.

While the thought of robots with intelligence and autonomy can be unsettling, history suggests that the greater threat often lies not in machines but in ourselves. Humans have long rationalized cruelty by denying the feelings of others, whether animals, other cultures, or even one another. Perhaps the movie is less about robots than it is about us. David’s plight reflects our own failings: our tendency to use what we create, to abandon what we no longer find useful, and to convince ourselves that responsibility ends at the moment of invention.

Despite its darker implications, I hope this story is not prophetic. My wish is that as we build more intelligent systems, we also nurture a culture of empathy. If we can imagine machines that learn to love, we should also imagine humans who learn to care more deeply, not only for what we create, but for the world we inhabit together.

In this vision, technology becomes a partner in making life better, not a mirror of our coldest instincts. Perhaps then, we can prove that we are indeed responsible for our rose. A.I. Artificial Intelligence reminded me that technical achievement without empathy is incomplete. If we hope to build intelligent systems that deserve our pride, we must be willing to care for them, and for the people they touch. We are, in that sense, responsible for our rose.