AI Creator Roasted by Artificial: Dark Warning on Dangers

A Surreal Take on the AI Arms Race

Artificial, the latest comedy-drama exploring the volatile world of OpenAI and the global artificial intelligence arms race, presents a narrative defined by its eccentric physical performances. The film’s visual language is anchored by distinct character choices that define the personalities of real-world tech figures. Russian actor Yuri Borisov, portraying OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever, moves with the lumbering, awkward gait of a geeky Frankensteinian monster. In contrast, Andrew Garfield, playing controversial CEO Sam Altman, bounces and skips in a boyish manner,a specific movement style that Altman himself has recently praised for its accuracy. Meanwhile, Ike Barinholtz embodies Elon Musk with a loping swagger, commanding rooms of computer scientists like an alpha gorilla, a demeanor mirrored by his long, pouting facial expressions that evoke the aesthetic of early Bored Ape NFTs.

During a post-premiere Q&A at the New York Film Festival, Barinholtz wryly described his character as “a person who walks normally.” Such are the awkward saunters of the march of history in the making.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film arrived at the festival burdened by significant controversy. It was initially slated for release by Amazon MGM before being conspicuously dropped this summer following Amazon’s massive $50 billion deal with OpenAI. The independent distributor Neon subsequently acquired the rights. NYFF artistic director Dennis Lim acknowledged these complex circumstances during his onstage introduction. Given OpenAI’s involvement, it is unsurprising that the studio may have had issues with the project. The movie offers an almost entirely unflattering portrait of Altman and other OpenAI stakeholders, depicting the major drivers of the AI boom as vain, reckless, and insufferably boring. While 2010’s The Social Network succeeded in portraying Silicon Valley savants as robust titans of industry and architects of the future, Artificial works to opposing ends. It depicts its tech titans as self-regarding dweebs.

Comparisons to David Fincher’s Facebook drama are inevitable due to the subject matter and Garfield’s lead role. However, Artificial functions more as a biopic of Sutskever, shown as both the prime mover of the current AI wave and its nagging moral conscience, than as a story about Altman. Guadagnino and writer-producer Simon Rich’s approach feels diametrically opposed to Fincher’s. Where The Social Network was a steely, polished, wordy drama, Artificial is pitched as a black comedy that verges on the surreal. Guadagnino, best known for Call Me by Your Name and Challengers, has mastered a strain of tense eroticism. There are shades of that in Artificial, particularly in Altman’s seductive wooing of Sutskever’s character. Yet, the film is, for the most part, literally and figuratively sexless.

The visuals are plain and even somewhat ugly, suggesting Guadagnino’s more rococo style is restrained. A slow-motion sequence shows gawky programmers dousing each other in bottles of Jarritos to celebrate an AI’s latest self-learning benchmark, resulting in a stickily unsexy image. A climactic scene where Altman and his OpenAI lackeys confront Sutskever on a sloping San Francisco street recalls the green-screen backdrops of Tommy Wiseau’s cult classic The Room. After the screening, Guadagnino claimed the story captured a different strain of desire,what he described as “the desire to prevail.”