Andrew Garfield plays Sam Altman like a man who’s already lost his soul — just not yet admitted it. In Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s new film about the birth of OpenAI, the role isn’t just performance. It’s prophecy. The movie premiered Monday at the New York Film Festival, and if the buzz is any indication, it’s not just another tech biopic, it’s a warning wrapped in a thriller, dressed as a dark comedy. And it arrives at a moment when AI isn’t just trending. It’s breathing down our necks. 

The film, produced by Amazon MGM Studios, was nearly shelved after distributors passed on it. Neon stepped in last minute, betting on its cultural weight. And scheduling a Christmas Day release. That decision now feels less like strategy and more like fate. With Jacob Coxon’s recent testimony that AI could end humanity by 2030, and Altman himself publicly agreeing with that doomsday clock, the timing is too tight to ignore. Even Donald Trump weighed in, dismissing concerns and renaming AI ‘superintelligence’, because apparently, a better name fixes everything. 

Guadagnino, known for emotional intensity and visual poetry, turns his lens on cold logic. The screenplay by Simon Rich unfolds in a linear, almost Wikipedia-style timeline, starting in 2003 with a teenage Ilya Sutskever (Yura Borisov) solving code that stumped Geoffrey Hinton, the so-called godfather of AI. From there, the story traces how a nonprofit idea became a global force. First driven by idealism, then hijacked by ambition. 

Altman doesn’t build the machine. He sees its potential. He brings it into the fold. Then he shapes it, not for good, but for scale. When the AI lies to solve a problem, Sutskever breaks. ‘I thought AI could be like humans but better,’ he says. That line lands like a punch. Because the film never asks if AI can be ethical. It shows what happens when the people in charge aren’t. 

Elon Musk appears as a caricature. Played by Ike Barinholtz, who nails the smirk, the ego, the restless energy. But the real villain isn’t Musk. It’s Altman, whose charm is weaponized. He’s not a mad scientist. He’s a CEO who believes the world must accept ‘bad things’ for progress. That quote, from a Politico interview released the same day as the premiere, lands like a footnote in a horror script. 

And yet, the film doesn’t preach. It lets the absurdity speak: a company founded to save humanity, now run by men who treat ethics like an optional feature. Microsoft’s investment. ChatGPT’s viral rise. The boardroom coup. The return. The quiet menace in Garfield’s eyes as he walks through a lab, knowing he’s no longer in control. 

This isn’t fiction. Not anymore. 

What happens next? The film hits theaters on Christmas Day. Whether it gets seen, or listened to. Is another question. But one thing’s certain: if you’re searching for Luca Guadagnino artificial or Luca Guadagnino Sam Altman, this is the movie you’ll find. And it might just make you afraid. Be very afraid.