Deepfaking Sam Altman

The film follows Adam Bhala Lough, a father of two and a working Los Angeles filmmaker who represents the anxious everyman of the AI age. Inspired by Terminator 2 and the techno optimism of James Cameron, Adam has always believed in the promise of technology, until the arrival of AI threatens to upend his profession, his kids’ future, and possibly the fate of humanity itself. His way of coping is to do what he’s always done: make a movie about it. The quest begins simply enough: Adam wants to interview Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and one of the most influential figures shaping the future of AI. But Altman doesn’t return his calls. Or emails. Or DMs. When Adam shows up at OpenAI with a film crew, he’s promptly escorted off the property and effectively banned from returning. His documentary is dead in the water. Then a headline grabbing Hollywood controversy sparks a new idea, one bold enough to revive the film. Adam travels to the other side of the world, where he teams up with Devi Singh Jadoun, an Indian deepfake artist briefly catapulted to online fame by his surreal Bollywood-into Barbie deepfakes. Together, they set out to build Sam Bot, an Altman-inspired AI trained on the voice and public appearances of the real man. Sharp, glitchy, and unexpectedly charismatic, Sam Bot becomes a creative foil and sidekick, reshaping the direction of Adam’s film and his understanding of human connection.