{"id":1851427,"date":"2026-03-27T15:43:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1851427"},"modified":"2026-03-27T15:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:43:41","slug":"the-ai-doc-explores-how-we-can-survive-an-uncertain-ai-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1851427","title":{"rendered":"The AI Doc explores how we can survive an uncertain AI future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/5lk_aadYkq35x3_qLD6u_Q&#8211;\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD02NzU-\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/ai_fp_00001_4872.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article id=\"article-5bcb7145-30c6-435b-9fe6-e27f5b4b96d4\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"mx-auto flex flex-row justify-between md:px-10 md:max-w-[1220px]\">\n<div class=\"min-w-0 flex-1 self-start\" data-i13n-boundary=\"true\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<nav class=\"relative mx-4 mb-4 border-b pb-4 md:mx-0 md:mb-6 md:max-w-[750px] md:pb-6\" aria-label=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<ol class=\"no-scrollbar overflow-scroll whitespace-nowrap text-battleship\">\n<li class=\"inline\">\n<li class=\"inline-block cursor-default last:pr-10 md:last:pr-20 font-bold\">Entertainment<\/li>\n<li class=\"inline-block cursor-default last:pr-10 md:last:pr-20 ml-2 before:mb-0.5 before:mr-3 before:inline-block before:size-2 before:rotate-45 before:border-r-2 before:border-t-2 before:border-battleship\">TV &amp; movies<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/nav>\n<header class=\"mb-4 px-4 md:mb-6 md:max-w-[750px] md:px-0\">\n<h1 class=\"layout-h1 my-2 font-bold leading-tight\">The AI Doc explores how we can survive an uncertain AI future<\/h1>\n<h2 class=\"rightrail-h2-subheadline my-2 text-[18px] font-light leading-5 md:text-[20px]\/[28px]\">Maybe we should all become &#8220;apocaloptimists.&#8221;<\/h2>\n<div class=\"flex-col items-start lg:flex lg:flex-row lg:items-center lg:justify-between mt-6\">\n<div class=\"relative md:mr-[10px]\">\n<div class=\"flex items-center\">\n<div class=\"flex mr-2\">\n<div class=\"shrink-0 cursor-pointer inline-block size-[42px]\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt role=\"img\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full rounded-full object-cover object-center shadow-[0_0_0_2px_#ffffff]\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/pm9NNYx6s2hTLTQZ6v82Dw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTgwO2g9ODA-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-01\/7bf86900-aa5a-11ee-af37-00cf16fbdc05\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-block\">\n<div class=\"w-max text-[0.875rem]\/[1.25rem] font-semibold flex items-center\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col\">\n<div class=\"flex w-max items-center\">Devindra Hardawar<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"font-normal sm:before:inline-block\">Senior Editor<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-[0.75rem] text-dolphin dark:text-shark md:text-[0.875rem]\/[1.25rem] lg:pt-[5px]\">\n<div class=\"inline-block\"><time datetime=\"2026-03-27T15:43:41.000Z\">Fri, March 27, 2026 at 3:43 PM UTC<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ml-0 mt-4 flex items-center lg:ml-3 lg:mt-0\">\n<div class=\"ml-0 mr-2\">\n<div class=\"relative flex\">Add Engadget on Google<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"mx-4 md:mx-0\">\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-[[fullbleed-start_body-start]_minmax(auto,750px)_[body-end_fullbleed-end]]\">\n<figure class=\"relative col-body mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative overflow-hidden fig-image-round \"><img decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"object-cover object-center\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/l1Uu.r73MDLgF3qBEamXvQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI7aD02OTk-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/uu\/api\/res\/1.2\/pr9fC7.Dl5xAjNBZQgHlkQ--~B\/aD0xNDA2O3c9MjUwMDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/ai_fp_00001_4872.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-[0.875rem]\/[1.25rem] figure-caption mt-1 line-clamp-2 mt-2.5 md:mt-2 pr-2.5\">\n<div><span class=\"[&amp;_p]:inline\">A picture showing the phrase &#8220;What is AI?&#8221; from The AI Doc.<\/span><span> (Focus Features)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-article-mobile md:max-w-[750px] md:grid-cols-article\" data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Anxiety, more so than technological rigor, sits at the heart of <em>The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist. <\/em>Director Daniel Roher is anxious about the future he&#8217;s bringing a child into \u2014 will it be an AI-driven utopia? Or does it spell certain doom, something explored in countless sci-fi stories. To figure it all out, he interviewed some of the most well known AI proponents and critics, including <em>The Empire of AI <\/em>author Karen Hao, AI researcher Emily Bender and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\"><em>The AI Doc<\/em>, which hits theaters this weekend, doesn&#8217;t really shed new light. For that, I&#8217;d recommend reading Hao&#8217;s industry-defining book, which chronicles the rise of OpenAI and the precarious nature of its business. But I don&#8217;t think tech-heads are the main audience for this film. Instead, Roher is trying to break down the state of AI for mainstream audiences, the folks who may occasionally use ChatGPT or Google&#8217;s Gemini, but aren&#8217;t aware of why they&#8217;re controversial. In particular, the film exposes the near-religious devotion many in the tech world have around AI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">It&#8217;s not a spoiler to say that Roher ultimately adopts an &#8220;apocaloptimist&#8221; viewpoint. He&#8217;s aware of the potential dangers of AI, and that it will likely have some serious societal impact. But, he also thinks humans have the ability to shape where it&#8217;s headed. AI proponents have a near-religious belief in the eventuality of artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that can match and surpass human capabilities. But AGI isn\u2019t inevitable, and Roher argues there\u2019s room for critics and the public to push back.<\/p>\n<div class=\"col-fullbleed mb-4 bg-marshmallow pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_lgb7b4ilfaiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-body mb-4 hidden pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:block\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_15gb7b4ilfaiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">We\u2019re seeing small examples of AI resistance already. Just look at the viscerally negative response to NVIDIA&#8217;s DLSS 5 AI upscaling; Microsoft&#8217;s recent plans to pull back on Copilot AI features in Windows 11; or OpenAI shutting down its Sora AI video generation app. (The latter may be due to the sheer expense, but Sora has certainly seen plenty of criticism.) If enough people say no to various implementations of AI, tech companies will be likely to respond.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative col-body mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Daniel Roher in The AI Doc.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" class=\"fig-image-round\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/P2pR5OulNxIsTNOZ4s811w--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/ai_fp_00003_2484.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-[0.875rem]\/[1.25rem] figure-caption mt-1 line-clamp-2 mt-2.5 md:mt-2 pr-2.5\">\n<div><span class=\"[&amp;_p]:inline\">Daniel Roher in The AI Doc.<\/span><span> (Focus Features)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\"><em>The AI Doc <\/em>splits its narrative between true believers \u2014 like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei \u2014 and prominent AI critics \u2014\u00a0like Tristan Harris, the co-founder and president of the Center of Humane Technology, as well as linguistics professor Emily M. Bender. It&#8217;s easy to feel a bit of whiplash when the film moves from people who genuinely think AI will lead to some sort of utopia (and who will also become insanely rich in the process), and the extreme critics who think it will mean the end of humanity. At one point, Harris mentions that some of his friends working in AI risk assessment believe that their kids &#8220;won&#8217;t see high school.&#8221; There&#8217;s that anxiety again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">While <em>The AI Doc <\/em>squeezes an impressive amount of notable interviews in its hour-and-43-minute runtime, I would have liked to hear more from critics like Timnit Gebru, a former Google AI researcher who also ties the development of AI into a rise of &#8220;techno-fascism&#8221; in Silicon Valley. She appears briefly in the film, but her perspective isn&#8217;t fully fleshed out. <em>The AI Doc<\/em> doesn&#8217;t dig very deeply into the driving forces behind AI, whereas <em>Ghost in the Machine<\/em>, this year&#8217;s other major AI documentary, draws a direct line between the rise of eugenics and Silicon Valley. (<em>Ghost in the Machine <\/em>is headed to theaters this summer, and will air on PBS in the fall.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">It&#8217;s the sort of energetic, animation-heavy documentary that wants to make sure the audience is never bored. But the threat of AI deserves more nuance and critical scrutiny. At worst, <em>The AI Doc<\/em> may make more people question the value of AI as the tech industry becomes more desperate to make it a success.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"hidden flex-none md:block ml-8\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full flex-col flex-nowrap\">\n<div class=\"flex-auto\">\n<div class=\"sticky flex flex-none\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_sj7b4ilfaiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mx-auto md:px-10 md:max-w-[1220px]\">\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-article-mobile md:max-w-[750px] md:grid-cols-article\">\n<div class=\"no-scrollbar col-body mx-4 mb-8 mt-2.5 overflow-x-scroll whitespace-nowrap md:mx-0 md:max-w-[750px] md:overflow-x-visible\">\n<div class=\"mx-auto max-w-screen-sm\">\n<ul class=\"inline-flex text-xs md:text-sm\">\n<li class=\"mr-6\">About our ads<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"grid grid-cols-article-mobile md:max-w-[750px] md:grid-cols-article\" data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Anxiety, more so than technological rigor, sits at the heart of <em>The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist. <\/em>Director Daniel Roher is anxious about the future he&#8217;s bringing a child into \u2014 will it be an AI-driven utopia? Or does it spell certain doom, something explored in countless sci-fi stories. To figure it all out, he interviewed some of the most well known AI proponents and critics, including <em>The Empire of AI <\/em>author Karen Hao, AI researcher Emily Bender and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\"><em>The AI Doc<\/em>, which hits theaters this weekend, doesn&#8217;t really shed new light. For that, I&#8217;d recommend reading Hao&#8217;s industry-defining book, which chronicles the rise of OpenAI and the precarious nature of its business. But I don&#8217;t think tech-heads are the main audience for this film. Instead, Roher is trying to break down the state of AI for mainstream audiences, the folks who may occasionally use ChatGPT or Google&#8217;s Gemini, but aren&#8217;t aware of why they&#8217;re controversial. In particular, the film exposes the near-religious devotion many in the tech world have around AI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">It&#8217;s not a spoiler to say that Roher ultimately adopts an &#8220;apocaloptimist&#8221; viewpoint. He&#8217;s aware of the potential dangers of AI, and that it will likely have some serious societal impact. But, he also thinks humans have the ability to shape where it&#8217;s headed. AI proponents have a near-religious belief in the eventuality of artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that can match and surpass human capabilities. But AGI isn\u2019t inevitable, and Roher argues there\u2019s room for critics and the public to push back.<\/p>\n<div class=\"col-fullbleed mb-4 bg-marshmallow pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_lgb7b4ilfaiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-body mb-4 hidden pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:block\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_15gb7b4ilfaiv5tilbH1_\">\n<div class=\"flex size-full items-center justify-center bg-marshmallow text-center leading-3\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">We\u2019re seeing small examples of AI resistance already. Just look at the viscerally negative response to NVIDIA&#8217;s DLSS 5 AI upscaling; Microsoft&#8217;s recent plans to pull back on Copilot AI features in Windows 11; or OpenAI shutting down its Sora AI video generation app. (The latter may be due to the sheer expense, but Sora has certainly seen plenty of criticism.) If enough people say no to various implementations of AI, tech companies will be likely to respond.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative col-body mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Daniel Roher in The AI Doc.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" class=\"fig-image-round\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/P2pR5OulNxIsTNOZ4s811w--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/ai_fp_00003_2484.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-[0.875rem]\/[1.25rem] figure-caption mt-1 line-clamp-2 mt-2.5 md:mt-2 pr-2.5\">\n<div><span class=\"[&amp;_p]:inline\">Daniel Roher in The AI Doc.<\/span><span> (Focus Features)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\"><em>The AI Doc <\/em>splits its narrative between true believers \u2014 like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei \u2014 and prominent AI critics \u2014\u00a0like Tristan Harris, the co-founder and president of the Center of Humane Technology, as well as linguistics professor Emily M. Bender. It&#8217;s easy to feel a bit of whiplash when the film moves from people who genuinely think AI will lead to some sort of utopia (and who will also become insanely rich in the process), and the extreme critics who think it will mean the end of humanity. At one point, Harris mentions that some of his friends working in AI risk assessment believe that their kids &#8220;won&#8217;t see high school.&#8221; There&#8217;s that anxiety again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">While <em>The AI Doc <\/em>squeezes an impressive amount of notable interviews in its hour-and-43-minute runtime, I would have liked to hear more from critics like Timnit Gebru, a former Google AI researcher who also ties the development of AI into a rise of &#8220;techno-fascism&#8221; in Silicon Valley. She appears briefly in the film, but her perspective isn&#8217;t fully fleshed out. <em>The AI Doc<\/em> doesn&#8217;t dig very deeply into the driving forces behind AI, whereas <em>Ghost in the Machine<\/em>, this year&#8217;s other major AI documentary, draws a direct line between the rise of eugenics and Silicon Valley. (<em>Ghost in the Machine <\/em>is headed to theaters this summer, and will air on PBS in the fall.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">It&#8217;s the sort of energetic, animation-heavy documentary that wants to make sure the audience is never bored. But the threat of AI deserves more nuance and critical scrutiny. At worst, <em>The AI Doc<\/em> may make more people question the value of AI as the tech industry becomes more desperate to make it a success.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/entertainment\/tv-movies\/the-ai-doc-explores-how-we-can-survive-an-uncertain-ai-future-154341735.html&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/5lk_aadYkq35x3_qLD6u_Q&#8211;\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD02NzU-\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/user-uploaded\/ai_fp_00001_4872.jpg&#8221;] Entertainment TV &amp; movies The AI Doc explores how we can survive an uncertain AI future Maybe we should all become &#8220;apocaloptimists.&#8221; Devindra Hardawar Senior Editor Fri, March 27, 2026 at 3:43 PM UTC Add Engadget on Google A picture showing the phrase &#8220;What is AI?&#8221; from The AI Doc. (Focus Features) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,63],"class_list":["post-1851427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-engadget-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1851427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1851427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1851427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1851427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}