AI on the Silver Screen: New Documentaries "Deepfaking Sam Altman" and "The AI Doc" Explore Tech’s Existential Divide

A review of two 2026 documentaries exploring the promise and perils of AI, featuring Sam Bot, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, and the rise of "apocaloptimism."

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 4, 2026, 4:32 AM EST

Source: The information in this report was sourced from ABC News

Probing the "Apocaloptimist" Mindset

Directed by Oscar-winner Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell, "The AI Doc" serves as a follow-up to Roher's acclaimed film Navalny. The documentary explores the psychological divide within the AI community. It features interviews with industry titans like Sam Altman (OpenAI), Dario Amodei (Anthropic), and Demis Hassabis (Google DeepMind). The film balances the grim predictions of Eliezer Yudkowsky who views AI as an existential threat to humanity against the optimism of Peter Diamandis, who believes AI will grant humans "unfathomable superpowers."

"Deepfaking Sam Altman": Turning the Tables on OpenAI

Director Adam Bhala Lough took a more experimental approach in "Deepfaking Sam Altman." After being ignored by Altman for months, Lough commissioned an engineer to create a "Sam Bot." This AI doppelgänger acts as the film’s protagonist, mimicking Altman’s soothing, contemplative tone. Lough argues that his use of a deepfake is a "bulletproof" creative choice, citing OpenAI’s controversial use of a voice eerily similar to actress Scarlett Johansson in 2024 as legal and moral precedent for his project.

The $12 Trillion Bubble and the "Squish" Factor

The documentaries coincide with a period of unprecedented financial growth for the "Magnificent Seven" (Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla), whose combined values have jumped by $12 trillion since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. However, the films capture an underlying sense of dread. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns in his interview that the AI "train" cannot be stopped, suggesting that those who try to stand in its way will simply be "squished."