Andrew Garfield was once one of ChatGPT’s 1.2 billion users. That was before he played OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial,” which focuses on the company’s origin story and Altman’s dramatic exit in 2023 (the board reinstated him five days later). Working on the film led Garfield to abandon the chatbot altogether.
“I was a little scared,” he said Variety at the premiere of Artificial at the New York Film Festival. “I felt a little wary of technology. I feel like the people who are encouraging us to use technology don’t know exactly what it’s capable of themselves. That seems a little irresponsible to me, personally.”
The tech company has faced public backlash over its ambitions to rapidly advance artificial intelligence without taking enough time to address security concerns, the main conflict explored in “Artificial.” OpenAI has also faced a series of hurdles over the past six months, including the shutdown of its generative AI video application Sora and increased industry scrutiny after a former Anthropic employee warned that AI companies are “playing with our lives.”
“Luckily, I don’t need (ChatGPT) in my life the same way other people in other industries do,” Garfield explained. “As an actor, I was using it as a sort of fancy Google for research purposes. I know that’s not what it’s intended for.”
According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about the increased presence of AI in daily life. Actors are also worried: What was once a hypothetical punchline has become a major concern among Hollywood creatives.
“I don’t think actors are going to become irrelevant,” Garfield said. “The soul of humanity is the soul of humanity. And I think actors are some of the people who have to hold the soul of humanity for all of us and for our stories.”
Garfield’s portrayal of Altman received rave reviews after “Artificial” premiered at the New York Film Festival. Variety Clayton Davis praised Garfield’s “Norman Bates-inspired turn” and predicted he could become a frontrunner for the best supporting actor nomination at this year’s Oscars.
“He has this vocal fry between the lines, kind of when he’s thinking, that he’s really made it,” said Will Angus, who appears in “Artificial” as former OpenAI employee and Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei. “The walking, the head movements. It was scary.”
Altman himself has complimented Garfield’s portrayal of his approach and other ways, although he does not expect the film to offer an “accurate” depiction of his ouster and reintegration.
“It’s a very generous thing of him,” Garfield said. “I imagine it must be incredibly strange and surreal being a young man, as he is, to know that there is a film where a version of him is portrayed. I feel quite sensitive and compassionate about it. Personally, I would feel very vulnerable and probably angry. That’s just me. He seems very calm about it. It’s a curious thing what we’re doing, but like Luca said, the people who are in power in our world right now, It is our duty to question this power.”
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