{"id":7459,"date":"2026-01-16T18:56:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=7459"},"modified":"2026-01-17T07:14:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:14:41","slug":"a-filmmaker-deepfaked-sam-altman-and-got-strangely-attached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=7459","title":{"rendered":"A filmmaker deepfaked Sam Altman\u2014and got strangely attached"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When director Adam Bhala Lough decided to make a film about artificial intelligence, he knew who his lead interviewee needed to be: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI have a premonition that Altman is going to be as big as Steve Jobs at some point in the future,\u201d Lough told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019m betting that Sam Altman is going to be in that ilk of people who change the world for better or worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite promising studios the interview and being fresh off an Emmy nomination for his previous docu-series, \u2018Telemarketers,\u2019 Altman wouldn\u2019t return Lough\u2019s various calls, texts, and emails. So he did the next best thing: He deepfaked him.<\/p>\n

At the time, Altman was at the center of a media storm. In 2023, he\u2019d been spectacularly fired and rehired from the company, and just a few months later had become embroiled in a legal fight with Scarlett Johansson over the use of a voice for OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT that sounded very similar to the actress\u2013something that pushed Lough to create his fake version of the CEO.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been thinking about deepfaking him for a while,\u201d Lough says. \u201cThe Scarlett Johansson thing really just gave me license to do it. Like he did this to her, so I\u2019m going to do it to him.\u201d (OpenAI said at the time that the voice was created with a professional voice actor, but ultimately removed the Johansson-like voice from ChatGPT ). <\/p>\n

Lough flew to India to create the deepfake\u2013presumably because no U.S. companies would take on the project\u2013hired an actor to play Altman, and used ChatGPT to generate a script (which Lough called \u201csurprisingly good\u201d and \u201cdefinitely scary.\u201d) Then the pair sat down for an extensive interview, which over weeks of filming turned into a strange friendship and the basis of the new film, Deepfaking Sam Altman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Throughout the process, Lough said he learned little to nothing about Altman himself, but a substantial amount about the technology he\u2019s building. Most surprising: the relationship, and the almost paternal feelings that Lough formed toward the deepfake he\u2019d created, affectionately known as SamBot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely surprised about how attached I became to the chatbot, but I think that\u2019s on me,\u201d Lough says. \u201cWhat that says about me is I guess I\u2019m gullible and I\u2019m naive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lough\u2019s experience reflects a growing phenomenon that has left some mental health professionals concerned. People are increasingly forming deep emotional bonds with AI chatbots, some romantic, others simply companionate. Some users have even reported replacing human relationships with digital ones. In extreme cases, mental health professionals have documented what they\u2019re calling \u201cAI psychosis,\u201d where users lose the ability to distinguish between their AI companion and reality, sometimes with devastating consequences.<\/p>\n

SamBot is certainly manipulative throughout Lough\u2019s film. It begs not to be destroyed, forms a relationship with Lough\u2019s son, spouts theories of AI consciousness and autonomy, and even asks if the lawyers Lough has consulted for the film would be interested in representing him.<\/p>\n

Sam Altman has not commented publicly on the film or his deepfake, and OpenAI did not immediately return Fortune\u2019s request for comment. (In the film, when Lough showed up at OpenAI\u2019s San Francisco offices to ask for an interview with Altman, he was apparently escorted off the grounds). By the end of film, Lough somewhat unwillingly parts ways with SamBot\u2014handing over the chatbot to Altman via tech journalist Kara Swisher\u2014after pressure from producers worried about the legal risks of holding onto the deepfake.<\/p>\n

Lough also gives SamBot some of this autonomy, briefly handing the directorial reins to the deepfake at one point during the film. The result is pure Uncanny Valley: a comical script of AI slop generated with AI startup Runway\u2019s software. But, in pushing both the legal and ethical boundaries of using AI in filmmaking, Lough\u2019s documentary simultaneously demonstrates both AI\u2019s possibilities and its real, logistical limitations.<\/p>\n

AI comes to Hollywood<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Lough\u2019s film is just the first in a slew of AI-integrated films<\/a> expected to be released this year. The increasingly realistic video that can be created with AI systems, such as OpenAI\u2019s Sora, have obvious cost-cutting implications for Hollywood and have left creatives working in the field concerned about job replacement.<\/p>\n

AI was a central sticking point in the 2023 writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes<\/a> that brought Hollywood to a standstill. The Writers Guild of America secured protections ensuring AI can\u2019t write or rewrite literary material, and that writers can\u2019t be required to use AI tools. SAG-AFTRA also negotiated new rules on consent and compensation requirements for AI-generated digital replicas of actors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that my movie exists in a very quaint moment in AI history, a moment in time where AI is still not perfect, where it hallucinates, where it creates slop,\u201d Lough says. \u201cThe moment that I documented in this film, and if it\u2019s like that, I almost call it quaint. That\u2019s not what the future is going to be. AI will very quickly become perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Lough\u2019s documentary, which is transparent and experimental with the use of the technology, AI is already creeping into writers\u2019 rooms and studios without clear disclosures, Lough says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concerns are more in feature filmmaking that the studios are using AI to write screenplays, and essentially, x-ing out the writer\u2026I know that they\u2019re doing it, even though they say they\u2019re not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Deepfaking Sam Altman <\/em>will be released on January 16 at the QUAD Cinema in New York City. It opens January 30 at the Laemmle NoHo Theater in Los Angeles followed by a nationwide theatrical roll out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When director Adam Bhala Lough decided to make a film about artificial intelligence, he knew who his lead interviewee needed to be: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. \u201cI have a premonition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":7460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[8389,8391,8388,7380,4203,8390],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nA filmmaker deepfaked Sam Altman\u2014and got strangely attached - Frisco Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AI is already remaking filmmaking. 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