Steven Spielberg is expected to direct AI, a sci-fi film that he had been discussing with Stanley Kubrick before Kubrick's death in March, the London Sunday Times reported. According to the newspaper, Kubrick's family and Warner Bros. are anxious for Spielberg to take on the project. It quoted Spielberg as confirming that he had read "the very long treatment" and had seen the storyboards for the movie, which deals with artificial intelligence. "Stanley said, 'Why don't I produce it and you direct it?'" Spielberg told the Sunday Times. The newspaper also reported that Kubrick had done tests with robots, had shot some footage with a child actor, and had put together a budget for the film of more than $100 million.

So they started work. It soon became clear to Aldiss that Kubrick really didn't have a clue about what he wanted to do, and didn't want to listen to any of his ideas. Instead he was mainly trying to stimulate his own ideas. Aldiss eventually tired of this and asked for a holiday - and got fired. They patched it up later and started again, only for the same thing to happen. Kubrick then moved on to Ian Watson for further collaboration. And then moved on again.