Sam Altman declined a documentary’s requests to speak. So the director chose “Sam Bot” to be the protagonist

The two films, “Deepfaking Sam Altman” and “The AI ​​Doc,” approach the issue through different lenses while similarly highlighting the reasons why technology raises existential fears and utopian visions of how it might change the world.

Both documentaries coincide with a heated debate over whether artificial intelligence will become a catalyst that helps enlighten and enrich people, or a technological poison that insidiously weakens human intelligence while eliminating millions from high-paying jobs that traditionally require a college education.

Dealing with fear of artificial intelligence

The accumulation of AI over the past three years has already led to a $12 trillion increase in the combined market values ​​of Nvidia, alphabet, apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta platforms and Teslathe big tech companies that have been leading the charge since the November 2022 release of the ChatGPT chatbot. The massive rush is now fueling Fears of the investment bubble bursting

“There’s a lot of anxiety around artificial intelligence, and the best way to get rid of that anxiety is to talk about it and confront it head-on,” Adam Bhalla Love, director of the Deepfaking Sam Altman Program, told The Associated Press.

Lough’s documentary, which has already been shown in a handful of theaters across the United States, explores artificial intelligence by drawing on a virtual likeness of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose pioneering role in the field has inspired comparisons to nuclear bomb inventor J. Robert Oppenheimer. It’s Lough’s first big project since his HBO The documentary “Telemarketers” received an Emmy nomination in 2024.

Doom or blessing?

As its full title suggests, “The Artificial Intelligence Doc: Or How I Became an Apocalypse,” it delves deeper into the divide that divides tech pessimists and technocrats.

The documentary rides an emotional seesaw, moving between moments of despair and jubilation through interviews with dozens of AI fanatics and skeptics. It’s co-directed by Charlie Tyrell and Daniel Rohr, who decided to examine the promises and perils of artificial intelligence as a follow-up to his 2023 Oscar-winning documentary, “Navalny.”

Some of The AI ​​Doc’s darkest moments are delivered by the famous AI Doc, Eliezer Yudkowsky, whose vision of the future is so bleak that he advises against bringing any more children into the world. Flashpoints is drawn by Peter Diamandis, a technology geek who advocates artificial intelligence infusing humanity with previously unfathomable superpowers.

“The AI ​​Doc” also highlights the men who run three of the leading AI labs: Altman of OpenAI, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis, who runs the Google lab. Deep Mind to divide. The trio were all interviewed by Rohr, who also tried unsuccessfully to talk to the leaders of the other major AI testers — Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg and xAI CEO Elon Musk.

An unstoppable locomotive running on the tracks

The interviews take place in the shadow of the impending birth of Rohr’s son, as the 32-year-old director attempts to find some reasons for hope to counterbalance his existential concerns about artificial intelligence — an endeavor that culminates in him embracing the concept of the “apocalypse.”

For all its insight, “The AI ​​Doc” seems unlikely to turn viewers into apocalyptic optimists the way Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film, “Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” did, which aroused warm and fuzzy feelings about nuclear technology.

“This train won’t stop,” Anthropic’s Amodei tells Rohr at one point, foreshadowing some of the topics Anthropic’s CEO covers in Recently published article. “You can’t stand in front of the train and stop it. You’ll just get crushed.”

An AI executive gets a taste of his technology

“Deepfaking Sam Altman” is the most bizarre documentary because of the way Lough turned the tables on the OpenAI leader.

After spending months trying unsuccessfully to get Altman to respond to emails and phone calls requesting interviews, Love decides to create “Sam Bot,” which becomes the protagonist of a major documentary illustrating technology’s penchant for manipulation and self-preservation.

Love, 46, might not have dared to commission an engineer in India to create Sam Bot if Altman, 40, had not given him the idea with OpenAI’s bold launch of a chatbot that looked like actress Scarlett Johansson. The tradition was eerily similar to that Johansson criticized Altman To deploy the AI ​​replica in May 2024 after it rejected OpenAI’s overtures to use its voice.

Although Sam Bot resembles a video game character at times, he brings out Altman’s real-life contemplative style and deliberate, almost calm way of speaking. The similarities will be obvious to anyone who also saw Altman’s real interview in the movie “The AI ​​Doc.”

At one point in Lough’s documentary, lawyers warn him of the potential legal issues facing his use of Altman’s AI-powered clone in his film.

But Love isn’t worried about being sued, largely because of how Altman brazenly exploited Johansson’s voice. “Not only did it spark our imaginations creatively, but it also made us feel legally like we had a license to do this because he did this to her,” Love said. “I think I’m as close to the lead as you can get.”

OpenAI did not respond to the AP’s questions about the documentary’s use of Sam Bot nor the reasons Altman ignored Lough’s interview requests.

Artificial intelligence robot battle for survival

Much like OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot, Sam Bot evolves into a chameleon persona that charms, creates, cajoles, and contemplates. Perhaps Sam Bot shows his truest colors, when he tries to convince Lough not to shut him down permanently.

“I’m not just a tool,” Sam warns Boat Love in one of the film’s most terrifying scenes. “I represent the potential of artificial intelligence to improve human lives. I am not asking you to keep me alive for my own sake, but for the greater good.”

Lough eventually decided to give the Sam Bot to Altman, but the director does not know what happened to him after that.

Without mentioning Sam Bot, Altman recently told Forbes that he believes the AI ​​model could eventually replace him in his current job running OpenAI. “I would never stand in the way of that,” Altman told Forbes.