The subject of AI-driven technology means different things to different people; in fact, some people label something AI when it actually isn’t, meaning that there are also various levels of understanding of what AI is, further complicating the discussion. Even filmmaker Daniel Roher (who won an Oscar a couple years ago for Navalny, directed a fantastic doc about The Band called Once Were Brothers, and has a fiction film coming out soon called Tuner) and co-director Charlie Tyrell (making his feature film debut) make it clear at the beginning of The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist that they might not be well-informed enough to speak with authority on the subject. But like a lot of people in charge of any project, they surround themselves with people who know more than they do on AI, and this movie is the result.
Leading the charge on camera is Roher, who is scared and anxious about what AI can do now and what it will do in the future. The only way to really get a grasp on this subject is to make it personal, and that’s exactly what he does—he injects his own fears, questions, and confusion on the subject and asks experts on both sides of the AI discussion for some clarity, which will either dispel his concerns or exacerbate them. But in the middle of making this documentary, he and his wife find out they’re expecting their first child, thus adding a ticking clock to the film; not your usual countdown clock, but something just as scary. There are those the filmmaker interviews who tell him they don’t expect children born around now to make it high school, mostly likely because some artificial intelligence will find a reason and way to end human existence. And this news sends him into a tailspin that is concerning to his wife and everyone else.
The interviews are solid, and I won’t even pretend to know who any of these tech giants are, but they work for or run companies like Google DeepMind, Open AI, Anthropic, Inflection AI, and Conjecture; they also talk to professors, tech journalists, risk assessors and advisers, computer scientists, historians, and people who work for organizations with names like the Center for Humane Technology and the Center for AI Safety. Roher makes a point to tell us he reached out but did not secure interviews with Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk (Musk originally said yes, but then got too busy dismantling the U.S. government), and even makes the point that by the time the movie we’re watching is released, some of the information in it will be dated.
The film is filled with naysayers and far more optimistic experts, and in the end, it’s impossible to know who or what to believe. It’s impossible not to be exposed to AI if you spend any amount of time on a computer or your phone, so the inclination is to sit back and let the world decide how soon it’s going to implode. But by the end of The AI Doc, we’re also given examples of how this most powerful technology that humans have ever created can be used for good. Any good issue-driven documentary shouldn’t tell you how to feel about its subject; it’s supposed to give you information on the topic and let you decide. And on that level, the filmmakers get it right, though it all still feels overwhelming and confusing, despite their best efforts.
(One last thing: the publicity for The AI Doc says it's “from the Academy Award-winning filmmakers behind Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which is partially true. One half of the Daniels (Daniel Kwan) is a producer on the film, but Roher is not one of the Daniels. The more you know…)
The film is now playing in theaters.
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