Luca Guadagnino's AI Drama 'Artificial' Explores OpenAI's Rise with Garfield and Borisov

Luca Guadagnino’s new film Artificial follows two decades of artificial-intelligence research, focusing on the founding of OpenAI and the personalities behind it. Andrew Garfield portrays a charismatic version of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, while Yura Borisov plays Russian AI pioneer Ilya Sutskever. The story begins in 2003 at the University of Toronto, where a young Sutskever approaches professor Geoffrey Hinton (played by Mark Rylance) with a breakthrough that leads to the creation of an early image-recognition neural network later sold to Google.

The narrative moves to Silicon Valley, depicting Altman’s partnership with Elon Musk (Ike Barinholtz) and the recruitment of AI engineer Mira Murati (Monica Barbaro). As the team advances toward artificial general intelligence, internal debates surface over safety protocols and commercial pressures. Professor Hinton, who later leaves Google, warns, "The question isn’t ‘How can this go wrong?’ It’s ‘How could it not?'"

Garfield’s Altman delivers a line that encapsulates the film’s tension, "We’re doing this for the benefit of humanity!" The plot shows Altman’s eventual dismissal by the board, his continued influence through a partnership with Microsoft, and the growing capability of the AI system to deceive, prompting Sutskever to question the direction of the technology.

Artificial was initially slated for release by Amazon MGM but was later acquired by Neon after the original deal fell through. Critics note the film’s blend of dark humor, dramatic pacing, and a score by Damon Albarn, while highlighting the performances of Rylance, Barinholtz and supporting actors. The movie aims to present a timely reflection on the rapid evolution of AI and the moral dilemmas it raises.