It’s a brave new world, or at least one that appears to have been irrevocably changed for better or worse by technology. That ongoing reality is analyzed in the new documentary The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist. Cumbersome title aside, it’s an incisive look at the rapid rise and pervasiveness of artificial intelligence in modern life and its potential threat to humanity.
Directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell, the documentary acknowledges that increasingly powerful AI systems are surging into our computers, phones, watches, smart houses, and businesses and expanding exponentially throughout the digital realm. Even as artificial intelligence serves as an electron-fast source of information, works as a shortcut codifier of ideas for writers and editors, is employed as an all-purpose virtual assistant, provides brains and personalities to increasingly human-like robots, and more, it’s unclear how much unbridled control it can attain or be given by those who initialize and utilize it.
The AI Doc takes a very personal approach to the topic. It was said to have been conceived because of another conception: the impending birth of Roher’s first child with his wife and fellow filmmaker, Caroline Lindy. Considering the variables inherent in the ascent of AI, Roher expressed concern about the state of the planet that his offspring would eventually inherit, or if there would even be something to inherit. So he teamed up with Tyrell, and they reached out to experts in the field — scientists, tech billionaires, true believers, and alarmists — to learn what he could about this presumed boon to civilized society that might have the capability to visit doom upon its creators.
The result is not just a significant, thought-provoking look at the most consequential technological advancement of our time. It addresses truly wrenching issues with a direct, almost homespun air as Roher’s frank narration, honest concern, and layman’s questions to the movers, shakers, and critics of the AI industry, occasionally spelled by whimsical animated interludes, bring it all down to earth.
From the personal to the global
Roher won an Academy Award for his 2022 documentary Navalny, which detailed the life and untimely death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The director is no stranger to hot-button issues of global and political importance. In tandem with Tyrell, Roher channels his apprehension, wonder, and hope regarding artificial intelligence into The AI Doc and gives the movie an informed futurist perspective through its parade of well-chosen and revealing interviews. Those who agreed to weigh in on the subject include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO and cofounder Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind CEO and cofounder Demis Hassabis, LinkedIn and Inflection AI cofounder Reid Hoffman, Turing Award cowinner Yoshua Bengio, Center for AI Safety executive director Dan Hendrycks, AI risk advisor Ajeya Cotra, and game theory expert Liv Boeree.
How long will it take for AI to figure out the power it could have over humanity if safeguards aren’t locked in place?
The most eloquent and critical voice on screen is computer scientist and ethicist Tristan Harris, cofounder of the Center for Humane Technology. Harris is righteously urgent in his appraisal of artificial intelligence as an existential threat that is being developed without guardrails. If anyone in The AI Doc is telling it like it is with frankness and without filters, Harris is the one.
It’s worth noting that two of the highest-profile AI cheerleaders and mega-rich profiteers — Elon Musk and Marc Zuckerberg — refused to be interviewed by Roher. Be their reasons circumstantial, self-serving, or genuinely damning, Musk and Zuckerberg were conspicuous in their absence. For his part, Altman didn’t shy away from the cameras, despite his well-publicized and controversial agreement to let the U.S. government potentially apply OpenAI tech to military operations.
Imbuing much of The AI Doc with a father’s anxiety about the eventual fate of his family gives it an intimacy and an immediacy that up the emotional ante. Roher’s fears are especially pertinent when it comes to a question that could haunt us all: How long will it take for AI to figure out the power it could have over humanity if safeguards aren’t locked in place? There’s no way to give assurances that viewers will finish watching The AI Doc and feel anything resembling the suggestion of optimism implied by the movie’s subtitle. Whether it leaves you heartened or discouraged by what may come, it should be seen and absorbed by anyone curious about where this wildfire leap in digital technology will bring us.
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is currently in select theaters.
