Artificial writer responds to OpenAI boss slamming film as ‘awful’

The Artificial film about OpenAI is currently premiering at the London Film Festival. The movie chronicles the origin story of OpenAI founder Sam Altman. Following Altman's comments last month, where he described the film as "awful" after watching the trailer, writer Simon Rich responded, stating that the film is "extremely accurate".

Rich emphasized that the movie is "legitimately true", with every tweet shown in the film being verbatim and time-stamped. Rich also explained the meticulous attention to detail in portraying the real individuals involved in the development of AI technology, noting that no characters were composite or fictional. While Rich acknowledged that certain scenes were dramatized due to lack of witnesses, he insisted that the film is "not exaggerated, not sensationalised, it is a very, very legally vetted, terrifyingly accurate portrayal of how we got to where we are".

The film follows the relationship between Altman and scientist Ilya Sutskever, illustrating their collaboration that led to the creation of ChatGPT, the first major AI chatbot released in 2022. Critics have praised Artificial for providing a "the closest look we've had at the charismatic, terrifying men at the heart of the AI revolution."

Andrew Garfield plays Altman, and Yura Borisov portrays Ilya Sutskever. Artificial is currently in UK cinemas at the end of January.