SPOILER-FREE PLOT SUMMARY
With tools like ChatGPT, Siri, Claude and Gemini in the palm of our hands, artificial intelligence is already present in everyday life. But, with big corporations and every government on the planet trying to maximize AI for their own financial, influential and geopolitical gain, the future is both exciting and bleak. With that in mind — and with a child on the way — filmmaker Daniel Roher starts to wonder if it’s smart to bring a kid into the world at this specific moment in time. Are we, as human beings, creating the very thing that will end life as we know it or the very thing that cures disease, solves poverty and advances our quality of life? In a quest to find out, Roher invites the world’s leading voices, analysts, experts and gatekeepers on artificial intelligence to educate us, the common person, on the promises — and perils — of AI.
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
For a subject like this, it’s important to disclose my frame of mind coming in. Headed into the theater, I was pretty heavily anti-AI. Sure, I’ve used ChatGPT to help explain my son’s math homework and even asked it to suggest best practices for the Untitled YouTube channel. But, when using AI for anything other than a tool, I’ve maintained a pretty consistent stance against it. Basically, I’ve seen enough movies to know how this ends.
For example, 2004’s I, ROBOT theorized how AI will inevitably decide humans are such a danger to the world that it needs to take over in order to ensure survival. In 1999’s THE MATRIX, Morpheus explains how energy from the sun — and eventually from humans — fuels the machines so they can rule. And, more recently, GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE sees a time traveler come back so he can confront the mysterious architect of AI which, in turn, has possibly created a simulation for us to live in.
In summary, it ain’t good.
But, thankfully, those are fictional works and this is real life. We learn in THE AI DOC that, while the technology can be scary for pessimists and thrilling for optimists, reality lies somewhere in the middle. I walked in expecting confirmation bias of my own fears and beliefs (which I did get) but I was simultaneously, unexpectedly given hope.
Going beyond the material, all the experts featured are given equal weight and the filmmakers use creative transitions and animations to tell the story at hand. No panelist is made out to be a punchline and the use of Roher’s sketch books is brilliant, visually interesting and on-theme. It’s elements like these that can push a movie in this specific genre from “good” to “great.” Does the audience learn something? Sure. But is it packaged in such a way that’s entertaining? This one is.
I hardly expected a documentary of this caliber to be even-keel, balanced and fair but here we are. Directors Roher and Charlie Tyrell deserve a lot of credit for their approach and execution of a highly-sensitive topic that touches everybody on the planet in some way.
While it was a blast seeing it in a theater, it’s not necessary. The important thing is that you see it at all. So, once it comes to streaming, you have no excuse.
JKG SCORE: 8.0
Untitled Film Project 