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Andrew Garfieldhas spoken aboutSam Altman, suggesting that there was a point where the billionaire OpenAI CEO felt “like my future best friend”.
The British actor, 43, plays Altman in the forthcoming biopicArtificial, directed byChallengersfilmmaker Luca Guadagnino.
OpenAI, the company behind generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, is one of the leading forces in the contemporary AI boom.
While the film has been characterised by critics as a condemnatory portrayal of the modern tech scene, Garfield said he once felt admiration for Altman, during a Q&A at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles on Monday (9 November).
“The first time I saw Sam, he was testifying in front of Congress and he was saying incredibly righteous stuff,” theAmazing Spider-Manstar said, following a screening ofArtificial.
“He was talking about transparency [in AI]; he was talking about the risks. He was very, very casually saying, ‘No, I don’t have any equity in OpenAI. I’m just doing this because I love the technology and I’m passionate and I actually care about human beings.’”
According toVariety, Garfield “stopped short” of directly criticising Altman as he spoke about the tech tycoon’s history.
“I thought it was also just incredibly courageous for an out gay tech genius to be sat in front of Republican congressmen who probably don’t believe in his right to exist,” Garfield said. “So all of these things were adding up for me, and I was in such deep admiration of him. I was like, ‘Oh, we need more of these.’
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“And then he was meditating with Jack Kornfield, who’s this incredible Buddhist teacher. I’m like, ‘This guy might be like my future best friend.’ I was like, ‘He’s genuinely great and he seems to really have his values and priorities in the right place,’” the actor added.
Artificialalso stars Yura Borisov, Cooper Hoffman, Monica Barbaro, Jason Schwartzman, and Mark Rylance, while Ike Barinholtz (The Studio) plays controversial Tesla founder Elon Musk.
According to Garfield, Altman managed to “convince” him that he was “nothing but purely altruistic”.
“I mean, it’s all playing out. I’m not gonna comment on those things,” he said, referring to whether or not Altman had delivered on this initial impression. “We all are seeing what’s happening and we can all have our own feelings and opinions of that.”
Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015, becoming CEO of the company in 2019, on the cusp of the global AI boom.
Artificialwas originally set to be distributed by Amazon MGM Studios, but they controversially dropped the film days after Amazon signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Open AI.
While Amazon stated that the reason was commercial – believing it would perform better if released elsewhere – commentators speculated that the film’s unsympathetic depiction of Altman had been a factor. Altman denied any involvement in the decision, andArtificialwas subsequently acquired by Neon.
Artificialis set to be released in UK cinemas on 22 January 2027.
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