"definitely stands out in its attempt to create a narrative that doesn’t openly criticise the technology itself"

2026 seems to be another prolific year for biopics. Artificial, although slightly premature, joins the ranks of films focusing on the rise of OpenAI, with particular attention to its founders, Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever.

Produced and directed by Luca Guadagnino, Artificial follows the rapid rise of AI. The film traces its journey from the earliest stages of scientific development to its public launch and the foundation of OpenAI, exploring the various attempts to master and, ultimately, regulate the technology.

It is an interesting choice to navigate events that are still unfolding in real time. AI is a technology that has quickly become part of people’s everyday lives, evolving rapidly over the past decade. We still don’t have enough experience to form an entirely objective opinion of it, either to condemn it or celebrate it. Making a film that openly analyses a moment in time we are still living through can be complicated.

However, Artificial definitely stands out in its attempt to create a narrative that doesn’t openly criticise the technology itself, but rather brings together the events that led us to the present day. The original idea was to create a tool smart enough to teach itself everything known to mankind, providing fast, analytical solutions to complex problems. However, once the prospect of profit became a reality, some of the people intellectually in charge of it ended up wanting to exploit users for money, status and power.

If there is one thing Guadagnino is good at, it is capturing the ugliness in people. 

His portrayal of Sam Altman is no exception. While we are spared any direct attack on Elon Musk, who only appears in the background as a petulant, impatient child (a portrayal that is not too far removed from reality), Altman becomes the face of everything that is wrong with the unchecked use of AI. 

Garfield is the perfect actor to portray him. He is likeable at first, but as the events unfold, his narcissistic, self-absorbed and capitalistic nature becomes increasingly apparent. Garfield perfectly captures Altman’s selfishness and the way he manipulates everyone at OpenAI to get what he wants.

Yura Borisov’s portrayal of Ilya Sutskever provides the perfect contrast to Andrew Garfield’s character. His performance beautifully captures Ilya’s firm belief, as an engineer, that AI could lead to a better future. He wanted OpenAI to be a committee of like-minded people working together to control, collaborate on and steer the development of AI for the greater good. But, in the end, he has to fold to Altman and almost give up on his idealistic and ethical principles. 

While it might be easy to believe that Artificial condemns the events of the past decade, ultimately, the film reminds us that technological progress does not necessarily mean human progress. 

We may be teaching machines to become smarter than us, but we still haven’t figured out how to overcome our own flaws.