Days after a long-rumored Nathan Fielder project featuring medical technology founder and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes made its rounds on the internet, another creepy Silicon Valley movie teaser is making headlines.
The 77-second snippet shows Altman, played by Andrew Garfield, walking through his minimalist mansion yard and past several Speedo-clad men while they sunbathe or exercise. As he descends into an iridescent doomsday bunker, with guns prominently displayed in cases, the mood gets darker. Garfield (as Altman) says, “Countries will fall. Industries are gonna collapse.”
“And we get to be the ones to shepherd people into this new world,” his narration goes. “I’m so excited to see it.”
At a time when the artificial intelligence race is ramping up, so too are insiders’ worries that the tech could destroy humanity. Those fears are increasingly being played out in the public sphere. On Tuesday, Anthropic’s lead AI alignment researcher posted on X that the company’s team “earnestly” believes AI will kill all humans, responding to a viral post from a staffer who quit over his own concerns the company wasn’t taking that risk seriously.
This year’s upcoming tech motion pictures are reflecting that sentiment of existential risk by angling toward the industry’s destructive contributions to society. Fielder’s A24 documentary on Holmes, called “You Can See Everything,” chronicles the former Theranos founder’s final days before an 11-year prison sentence. “The Social Reckoning,” a sequel to 2010’s “The Social Network,” which chronicled Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook come-up and burning of his friend and co-founder Eduardo Saverin (also played by Garfield), is a darker portrayal of the company. While the first movie largely circled around a young Zuckerberg’s awkwardness and early CEO snafus, this one depicts the story behind the Wall Street Journal’s 2021 investigative series “The Facebook Files,” which revealed, among many controversies, that the company was aware its products harmed children and did little to prevent it.
The reactions from the tech execs being portrayed onscreen have varied. Zuckerberg hasn’t shied away from critiquing the 2010 film’s accuracy, and he has publicly noted that the only thing the movie seemed to accurately portray was his style, or lack thereof. His response to the new film may not be as lighthearted, given the company just settled a lawsuit for a historic $18 billion over the same claims that appear to be at the heart of the new movie.
Altman hasn’t publicly commented on the “Artificial” teaser, though his brother already has notes.
“Look, you all know I’d love nothing more than a feature length film making fun of my brother,” Jack Altman said in a post on X. “Unfortunately based on the preview it looks like the only thing they got right is the walk.”
Work at OpenAI and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Matthew Brown securely at matthew.brown@sfgate.com or matthewbrownsfgate.11 on Signal.