Artificial Intelligence and the Aperture of Acceptance
When viewing Moon and observing Gerty, it becomes difficult not to draw parallels to Hal from 2001: A Spacey Odyssey. There are moments in the film that allude to Kubrick's artificial intelligence, Hal, such as when Sam asks Gerty to open the doors outside after his mission. This scene conflicts with Gerty's imperatives, which have programmed him not to let Sam discover the clones. In this moment, Gerty responds, "I can't let you go outside, Sam," which mirrors the scene in 2001 when Dave asks Hal to open the pod doors. There, Hal responds in a similar manner, stating, "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that." Given negative perceptions of artificial intelligence, there is an ominous tension present here; however, when Gerty acquiesces to Sam, this reveals a subversion of conventions and, perhaps a "perceptual shift" as noted by Joshua Randall in Demonstration of the Shifting Societal Perceptions toward Artificial Intelligence in the film Moon (2014).
The moment where Sam attempts to access information from the computer, we see Gerty's robotic arm slowly reach towards Sam. Here, once again, the audience expects the conventional trope, where artificial intelligence turns against the human; yet once again, we see Gerty disregard his programmed imperatives to give Sam the information he seeks, revealing the entire truth. When contrasted with 2001, Hal decides to ultimately kill the crew in order to maintain the integrity of the mission and keep in line with his programming.
What is interesting to note as well is the appearance of both Hal and Gerty. Hal is seen as a cold machine, having no distinct profile. Gerty, on the other hand, is seen as a tangible robot who is able to express emotions through emoticons. The latter concept is perhaps important, as humans have a need to recognize faces and emotions, and thus Gerty's ability to express his enables the audience to resonate with him.
Gerty's climactic moment feeds into notions of person-ness, as his ultimate sacrifice to Sam erases fifteen years of his memory. In this instance, there is a similar parallel to Spielberg and Kubrick's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, where Teddy is shown offering a similar sacrifice to David, as he risks his life and well-being in the pursuit of satisfying David. The difference here, however, is that although David symbolically represents negative human attributes, in Moon's closing sequence, we see humanity in Sam, as he removes the mocking post-it from Gerty placed there by previous Sam clones.
Given the rise in artificial intelligence projects (self-driving cars, workers, etc.), it is interesting to note how Moon presents artificial intelligence in a positive light. Although there is looming uncertainty with safety and human outsourcing, it appears a growing contingent of the population not only sees artificial intelligence as a net positive, but as a necessity and natural step in evolution.