Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Artificial’ skewers OpenAI but loses its way in tonal chaos

Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial” presents the rise of OpenAI and Sam Altman as a sharp satire of the technology elite. The film is screening at the New York Film Festival.

Andrew Garfield plays Altman, with Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever, Mark Rylance as Geoff Hinton, and Ike Barinholtz and Monica Barbaro in supporting roles. The screenplay is by New Yorker essayist Simon Rich.

From Hinton’s lab to OpenAI

The story begins in 2003, when the young Sutskever approaches Hinton for a job. Nine years later, their technology can distinguish cats from dogs, and Elon Musk introduces Sutskever to Altman.

The film portrays Altman as manipulative and narcissistic. Its central conflict reaches his removal as OpenAI chief executive and his return five days later.

Amazon MGM leaves distribution

Amazon MGM Studios withdrew from distributing the film in June. The source links that decision to Jeff Bezos’s company having a $50 billion investment in OpenAI, but gives no additional explanation.

The review describes “Artificial” as Guadagnino’s most overtly comic film while criticizing its broad humor, obvious visual metaphors and uneven tone. It also notes a score by Damon Albarn and says an earlier version of the article misquoted one of his lyrics before the error was corrected.

Release dates

The film opens in the US on 25 December, in Australia on 21 January and in the UK on 27 January. The source does not specify the year for the Australian and UK dates; in context, they refer to releases following the US opening.