Dueling documentaries illuminate the promise and perils of artificial intelligence

Dueling documentaries illuminate the promise and perils of artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence’s dystopian specter has spawned a pair of documentaries dissecting a technology that’s depicted as ravenous parasite devouring humanity’s knowledge, creativity and empathy By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP technology writer March 3, 2026, 3:35 PM SAN FRANCISCO -- Artificial intelligence's dystopian specter has spawned a pair of documentaries dissecting a technology that's depicted in the films as a ravenous parasite devouring humanity's knowledge, creativity and empathy. The films, “Deepfaking Sam Altman” and “The AI Doc," 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. 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. 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. “There 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,” Adam Bhala Lough, the director of “Deepfaking Sam Altman," told The Associated Press. Lough's 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's Lough's fi...