Why would a big tech company run scared of annoying a major AI player? Downstream blowback? Opening themselves up to algorithm-driven retaliation? The mind boggles. Whatever the reason, Amazon MGM Studios has dropped Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, a movie that was to do for OpenAI what The Social Network did for Zuckerberg and Facebook.
The project is now looking for a new home, according to a report in Puck News.
Artificial follows the rise of ChatGPT creators OpenAI, and the rivalries, egos, and drama behind the scenes.
Now, I have spent my entire career around tech people, and it never resembles an episode of Dallas or Dynasty, just a bunch of ‘spergy as fuck people looking really awkward in the bar after work when we invite them to join us. So, not sure where Hollywood keeps getting this idea that it’s all an episode of Succession crossed with a desk-bound Top Gun: Maverick situation down there on the tech floor.
This movie stars Andrew Garfield as Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Yura Borisov as machine learning engineer Ilya Sutskever, and Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk. Co-stars are Monica Barbaro, Cooper Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, and Mark Rylance.
It was written by Simon Rich (An American Pickle). Amazingly, the movie is said to be completely finished and ready to release. The report said the finished movie was “significantly darker” than what was pitched.
Amazon-MGM chief Mike Hopkins saw the finished film and immediately pulled it, feeling it would have a better home somewhere else. This leaves the producers free to ship Artificial around. OpenAI have not commented.
