Artificial writer admits AI industry workers helped shape OpenAI film
City AM spoke to Artificial writer Simon Rich at the London Film Festival screening of the new AI movie
Artificial writer Simon Rich has revealed that AI industry workers were present on the set during the filming of his new AI movie Artificial, which charts the rise of OpenAI founder Sam Altman.
Artificial has been described by critics as a “chilling” and “scary” look inside the world of AI, suggesting that warnings from leading scientists about the dangers of AI have been ignored.
OpenAI launched the first major AI chatbot ChatGPT in 2022, instigating the AI arms race. The idea for the film was inspired by Rich’s friend who works for OpenAI.
Speaking to City AM during the London Film Festival where Artificial had one of its initial screenings, Rich confirmed AI industry workers were present on set.
Artificial film: experts and authorities helped
“We had people on set and people involved in the research process with the ability to give us authentic information about the company,” Rich told City AM.
“There is a large research team in place for this film and we had a number of experts and authorities involved to make sure we could make it as accurate as possible.”
Asked how Artificial dealt with the ethical challenges of scrutinising AI while inviting people from that world onto the set, Rich defended some AI workers. “I don’t think that everyone in the AI industry has bad intentions,” he said.
“What we try to show through Ilya’s character is that a lot of characters are incredibly idealistic and earnest and have the best intentions. They’re trying to create a heaven, a utopia, it’s not working out that way, but a lot of the scientists are kind and altruistic and believe they’re doing their best for mankind.
‘An awful movie’
“And in terms of how I feel about having any sort of professional contact with AI folks, I don’t think it’s possible to live in 2026 without grappling… AI is so embedded in every aspect of society, I don’t think you can avoid it entirely.”
One scene in the film depicts the real-life moment when Rich saw an early version of ChatGPT at a friend’s wedding. His friend Dan Selsam who still works for OpenAI showed him a prototype of the chatbot, which inspired the movie.
City AM’s Artificial review gave the movie five stars, describing it as “the closest look we’ve had at the charismatic, terrifying men at the heart of the AI revolution.” Andrew Garfield plays Altman, while Yura Borisov plays scientist Ilya.
Last month Altman, the man behind ChatGPT and one of the world’s leading figures in AI, said Artificial looked like “an awful movie” after watching the trailer.
‘Extremely accurate’
Speaking to City AM, writer Simon Rich responded to Altman’s criticism, saying his film is “extremely accurate”.
“Even the tweets you see on the screen are verbatim and time stamped,” he said. “And for legal reasons we had to go above and beyond the normal Hollywood accuracy bar. A lot of movies are ‘quote unquote’ based on a true story but this is a legitimately true story.
“There’s a world where we could have done this movie with a lot of composite characters. That’s often what you do to save time and money. If there’s four scientists who roughly believe the same thing, we’ll just make it all one guy. That way we only have to find one actor. We didn’t do that. The people are vividly and accurately portrayed, if someone wasn’t physically in a scene and we know they weren’t physically there, they’re not there in the film.”
Artificial is in UK cinemas at the end of January.