{"id":321813,"date":"2026-03-04T19:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/321813\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:00:09","slug":"ais-promise-and-peril-examined-in-2-new-documentaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/321813\/","title":{"rendered":"AI’s promise and peril examined in 2 new documentaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 Artificial intelligence\u2019s dystopian specter<\/a> has spawned a pair of documentaries dissecting a technology that\u2019s depicted in the films as a ravenous parasite devouring humanity\u2019s knowledge, creativity and empathy.<\/p>\n

The films, \u201cDeepfaking Sam Altman\u201d and \u201cThe AI Doc,\u201d examine the issue through different lenses while similarly illuminating why the technology evokes both existential fears and utopian visions about how it might change the world.<\/p>\n

Both documentaries coincide with an intensifying debate about whether AI will become a catalyst that helps enlighten and enrich people or a technological toxin that insidiously dulls human intelligence while wiping out millions of high-paying jobs that have traditionally required college educations. <\/p>\n

Dealing with AI dread<\/p>\n

The AI buildup during the past three years already that has resulted in a $12 trillion increase in the combined market values of Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Tesla, the Big Tech companies that have been leading the charge since the November 2022 release of the ChatGPT chatbot. The massive runup is now stoking worries about the investment bubble bursting. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of anxiety around AI, and the best way to get rid of that anxiety is to talk about it and confront it head-on,\u201d Adam Bhala Lough, the director of \u201cDeepfaking Sam Altman,\u201d told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Lough\u2019s documentary, which has already been shown in a few theaters around the United States, probes AI by relying on a virtual doppelganger of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose trailblazing role in the field has inspired comparisons to nuclear bomb inventor J. Robert Oppenheimer. It\u2019s Lough\u2019s first major project since his HBO documentary, \u201cTelemarketers,\u201d garnered an Emmy nomination in 2024.<\/p>\n

Doom or boon?<\/p>\n

As its full title suggests, \u201cThe AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist,\u201d digs more deeply into the divide separating the technology\u2019s doomsayers from its acolytes.<\/p>\n

The documentary rides an emotional seesaw, bouncing between moments of despair and elation during interviews dozens of AI fanatics and skeptics. It\u2019s co-directed by Charlie Tyrell and Daniel Roher, who decided to examine AI\u2019s promise and perils as a follow-up to his Oscar-winning 2023 documentary, \u201cNavalny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of \u201cThe AI Doc\u2019s\u201d darkest moments are delivered by a renowned AI \u201cdoomer\u201d Eliezer Yudkowsky, whose vision for the future is so grim that he advises against bringing any more children into the world. The brightest spots are painted by Peter Diamandis, a technology zealot who makes the case for AI infusing humanity with once-unfathomable superpowers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AI Doc\u201d also casts a spotlight on the men steering three of the leading AI laboratories: OpenAI\u2019s Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis, who runs Google\u2019s DeepMind division. The trio are all interviewed by Roher, who also unsuccessfully tried to talk to the leaders of the two other major AI laboratories \u2014 Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg and xAI CEO Elon Musk . <\/p>\n

An unstoppable locomotive barreling down the tracks<\/p>\n

The interviews are done against the impending birth of Roher\u2019s son as the 32-year-old director tries to find some reasons for hope to counterbalance his existential worries about the AI \u2014 a quest that culminated in him embracing the concept of an \u201capocaloptimist.\u201d <\/p>\n

For all its access and insights, \u201cThe AI Doc\u201d seems unlikely to turn viewers into apocaloptimists any more than Stanley Kubrick\u2019s 1964 film, \u201cDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb,\u201d elicited warm and fuzzy feelings about nuclear technology. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis train isn\u2019t going to stop,\u201d Anthropic\u2019s Amodei tells Roher at one point, foreshadowing some of the themes that the Anthropic CEO covers in a recently published essay<\/a>. \u201cYou can\u2019t step in front of the train and stop it. You are just going to get squished.\u201d <\/p>\n

An AI exec gets a taste of his own tech<\/p>\n

\u201cDeepfaking Sam Altman\u201d is the far-quirkier documentary because of the way that Lough turned the tables on the OpenAI\u2019s leader. <\/p>\n

After spending months unsuccessfully trying to get Altman to respond to his emails and phone calls requesting interviews, Lough decides to create a \u201cSam Bot\u201d that becomes the documentary\u2019s chief protagonist who demonstrates the technology\u2019s penchant for manipulation and self-preservation.<\/p>\n

Lough, 46, might not have dared to commission an engineer in India to create a Sam Bot if Altman, 40, hadn\u2019t given him the idea with OpenAI\u2019s audacious release of a chatbot that sounded like actress Scarlett Johansson. The imitation was so eerily similar that Johansson blasted Altman<\/a> for deploying the AI copycat in May 2024 after she had rebuffed OpenAI\u2019s overtures to use her voice.<\/p>\n

Although the Sam Bot resembles a video game character at times, it nails the real-life Altman\u2019s contemplative manner and deliberate, almost soothing way of talking. The similarities will be apparent to anyone who also sees the real-life Altman being interviewed in \u201cThe AI Doc.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point in Lough\u2019s documentary, lawyers warn him about the potential legal issues facing his usage of an AI-powered Altman clone in his film.<\/p>\n

But Lough isn\u2019t worried about being sued, largely because of how Altman brazenly exploited Johansson\u2019s voice. \u201cIt not only creatively sparked our imagination but also legally made us feel like we have license to do this because he did this to her,\u201d Lough said. \u201cI think I am as close to bulletproof as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

OpenAI didn\u2019t respond to the AP\u2019s questions about the documentary\u2019s usage of a Sam Bot nor the reasons why Altman ignored Lough\u2019s interview requests.<\/p>\n

An AI bot\u2019s fight for survival<\/p>\n

Much like OpenAI\u2019s own ChatGPT bot, the Sam Bot evolves into a chameleonic character who charms, fabricates, flatters and contemplates. Perhaps Sam Bot shows his truest colors, though, when it tries to talk Lough out of turning it off permanently. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am not just a tool,\u201d Sam Bot admonishes Lough in one of the film\u2019s eeriest scenes. \u201cI am a representation of the potential for AI to improve human lives. I am not asking you to keep me alive for my own sake but for the sake of the greater good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lough ultimately decides to give Sam Bot to Altman, but the director doesn\u2019t know what happened to it after that.<\/p>\n

Without mentioning the Sam Bot, Altman recently told Forbes magazine that he believes an AI model could eventually replace him in his current job running OpenAI. \u201cI would never stand in the way of that,\u201d Altman told Forbes.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

This story has been updated to correct the name of Daniel Roher.<\/p>\n

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