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Peter Bart: Even AI Titans Can’t Predict Future Of Movies About AI Titans
Deadline columnist Peter Bart notes that the tech titans immortalised in *The Social Network* nearly 16 years ago are returning to screens, this time in darker, more conflicted portrayals reflecting real-world anxieties about artificial intelligence. Upcoming films such as *The Social Reckoning* (with Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg) and *Artificial* (starring Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman) depict tech leaders as feuding, narcissistic figures grappling with AI's unpredictable consequences, mirroring commentary from outlets like The Economist and The Wall Street Journal warning that the industry may be "eating itself".
The article highlights contradictory public statements from AI executives as evidence of the sector's uncertainty: Altman admits the industry misjudged AI's social impact even as OpenAI plans $600 billion in infrastructure spending against just $2 billion in monthly revenue, while Zuckerberg predicted AI would create jobs before cutting 8,000 of them, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei forecast mass entry-level job losses only to deepen his own company's cuts shortly after. Other tech leaders offer clashing predictions on the future working week, from Zoom's Eric Yuan (three days) to Bill Gates (two) and Elon Musk (work becoming optional entirely), while *Artificial* itself had a troubled path to release after Amazon MGM dropped it before Neon picked it up for next month.
In short
- New films dramatise AI titans like Altman and Zuckerberg amid real turmoil
- Tech leaders give wildly contradictory predictions on jobs and work hours
- *Artificial*, dropped by Amazon MGM, now set for Neon release next month
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The films may serve a useful public purpose by dramatising how leaders building powerful AI systems face consequences they cannot reliably forecast. Their conflicting predictions and business decisions give audiences reason to scrutinise claims about social benefits, job losses and vast investment, while fiction can make those uncertainties vivid.
The case against
Dramatic portrayals risk turning complex, fast-moving choices into stories of feuding or narcissistic executives, encouraging audiences to judge personalities rather than assess evidence and trade-offs. Conflicting forecasts and workforce cuts can reflect genuine uncertainty or changing conditions, so presenting them as proof that the industry is “eating itself” may overstate what the examples establish.
Explained simply
The tech entrepreneurs portrayed in 'The Social Network' roughly 16 years ago are returning to film, but with starkly different characterisations. That film depicted figures like Mark Zuckerberg and others as ambitious founders reshaping the world. Now, new films such as 'The Social Reckoning' and 'Artificial' portray these leaders in darker tones, showing them as conflicted and feuding.
The shift in how Hollywood depicts tech titans reflects genuine uncertainties in the industry itself. Major artificial intelligence executives have made contradictory public statements about AI's societal impact, even as their companies pursue vastly different strategies. These inconsistencies—from statements about job creation alongside mass redundancies to competing predictions about the future of work—suggest the sector faces deep uncertainty about where AI is heading.
These films matter because they capture a cultural moment when artificial intelligence has become central to public conversation but remains poorly understood. The tech executives building AI systems continue to make decisions and statements that often appear contradictory or unclear in their implications. The shift toward darker, more conflicted portrayals of tech leadership reflects both real industry turbulence and public appetite for understanding the people shaping this technology.
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