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AI is coming. AI is here. AI is a bubble. AI is the future we want. AI is the end. AI is the path to a better us (at least the ones who survive it).<\/p>\n
A big topic, this artificial intelligence, with a lot of different ways to think about it. To grapple with AI is a worthy endeavor for any filmmaker. (And by grapple, I don\u2019t mean asking AI to make the film for you.)<\/p>\n
Daniel Roher<\/a>, the man behind the Oscar-winning \u201cNavalny,\u201d<\/a> has, along with co-director Charlie Tyrell, attempted a nonfiction primer of sorts on the biggest technological, societal and existential challenge of our time with \u201cThe AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist,\u201d a title boasting a hybrid coinage Roher picks up from one of his interviewed experts \u2014 one of too many, it turns out. \u201cThe AI Doc\u201d is a well-intentioned but aggravating soup of information and opinion that wants to move at the speed of machine thought.<\/p>\n Roher\u2019s approach is understandable for a mainstream doc. He assumes many of us are tech-competent, anxious and confused as to what AI even is to begin with. In his pursuit of answers, Roher employs a cloying framework: his loving wife occasionally narrating as if this were a storybook and Roher the protagonist of a scary adventure. The fable construct extends to a frenetic visual scheme of handmade art and animation that interrupts our absorption process as if we were kids needing stimulation between all the talking heads.<\/p>\n