Luca Guadagnino Is ‘Not Afraid’ of Sam Altman Backlash to ‘Artificial’: ‘People That Have a Lot of Power’ Should Be ‘Aware That You Must Be Responsible’

Luca Guadagnino‘s “Artificial” takes on some of the most powerful leaders in artificial intelligence, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — but he’s “not afraid” of any potential backlash.

Premiering at New York Film Festival on Monday, Guadagnino’s timely movie stars Andrew Garfield as Altman and centers on the time in 2023 when he was ousted from OpenAI and then rehired. Supporting players include “Anora” breakout Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever, the OpenAI co-founder who fires Altman; Monica Barbaro as former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati; and Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk.

In an interview with Vulture, the “Call Me by Your Name” and “Challengers” director was asked if he had any fears about the response from Altman or other people depicted in the film. “I don’t know — maybe they love the movie,” he said, adding: “I’m not afraid. I think that people that have a lot of power should be very much aware that you must be responsible for the community.”

Guadagnino also said that he was “indirectly approached” by some of those portrayed — though he didn’t reveal who exactly — “but we didn’t engage.” Altman has yet to publicly comment on the film.

“Artificial” was picked up by Neon after its original studio, Amazon MGM, dropped the film following Amazon’s $50 billion investment in OpenAI. Questioned about the shuffle, Guadagnino simply said: “I don’t want to get much into that. I love everybody in that company,. The people at Amazon are my friends.”

The director is also somewhat indifferent on AI itself, saying that he wouldn’t use it in his own filmmaking but isn’t a prohibitionist. “With everything that makes change, I’m very secular,” he said. “I welcome change and I witness change. To go against change, somehow it’s not an appropriate approach. You have to wait and see.”

Read Guadagnino’s full Vulture profile here.