Here’s how latest AI documentaries expose dark side of technology

The two new AI documentaries, Deepfaking Sam Altman and The AI Doc, bring new insights about the dangers and benefits of artificial intelligence in near future. The film Deepfaking Sam Altman includes an AI-created digital replica of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Whereas The AI Doc includes interviews with important AI industry leaders including Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. The two movies investigate how artificial intelligence technology will change human existence and social systems.

What are 'Deepfaking Sam Altman' and 'The AI Doc' documentaries about?

The film Deepfaking Sam Altman uses an artificial intelligence character to examine ethical and social dilemmas about technology while displaying both idealistic and pessimistic future possibilities.

The AI Doc shows actual experiences from AI experts together with opposing views between an AI doomsayer and a technology supporter. The films want to assist viewers in forming an unbiased understanding of AI which does not allow them to become either excessively afraid or excessively optimistic.

The release of these movies is expected this year and coincides with a $12 trillion increase in market capitalisation of major tech companies involved in AI development since the release of ChatGPT in 2022.

Amodei explained in The AI Doc documentary that "this train isn’t going to stop. You can’t step in front of the train and stop it. You are just going to get squished. However, as portrayed in Deepfaking Sam Altman, I am not just a tool. I am a representation of the potential for AI to improve human lives.”

The filmmakers of these documentaries hope that these movies will convince people to become “apocaloptimists” and think positively about AI’s potential and its possible perils.

The AI Doc, a sequel of Oscar-winning Navalny, directed by Daniel Roher and released in 2023, is scheduled for release, while Deepfaking Sam Altman, directed by Adam Bhala Lough, is already playing in some theatres in the US.