The advertising for “Deepfaking Sam Altman” riffs on a well-known poster for Michael Moore’s “Roger & Me” (1989), and this documentary begins with an approach similar to Moore’s. The director, Adam Bhala Lough, is determined to interview Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI. Thanks to “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” Bhala Lough says, he has a longtime interest in artificial intelligence. Also, getting time with Altman would help secure financing for the movie.
But when Bhala Lough’s goofy efforts at outreach — he visits a San Francisco building he’s not certain is OpenAI headquarters — predictably fail, he settles on “the most tech bro idea ever”: creating a fake Sam Altman using A.I. technology. He travels to India, supposedly because no one in the United States would do this, and puts out a casting call for an actor for a deepfake. (The A.I.-generated audition monologue is good for a few laughs.) “I don’t think this would convince a 4-year-old,” Bhala Lough complains of the resulting chatbot, so he resorts to a different gimmick: handing over directing duties to the ersatz Altman, whose creative suggestions prove, as a producer says, that A.I. is not connected to reality.
But Bhala Lough develops a rapport with the bot anyway. When the director interviews Kara Swisher, formerly a New York Times Opinion contributor and podcaster, she points out that his attachment is real, even though he’s basically interacting with a toaster. (The Times sued OpenAI and its partner Microsoft, arguing that the companies used millions of Times articles to train their A.I. systems without any offer of compensation. Microsoft and OpenAI have disputed the claims.)
Give Bhala Lough credit: His film simultaneously illustrates the deficiencies of generative A.I. and the dangers of investing in it emotionally, while remaining annoying and self-amused in a distinctly human way.
Deepfaking Sam Altman Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters.
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