The idea to make the "definitive" AI documentary was, admittedly, ambitious. But the timeline was downright absurd. The filmmaking teams behind "Everything Everywhere All At Once" and "Navalny" started talking about a collaboration on the Oscars circuit, thinking perhaps they could finish something in a year. In reality, it would take "The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist" almost three years for it to reach audiences. The film, co-directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell, and co-produced by Daniel Kwan, attempts to zoom out from the daily headlines to give audiences a more evergreen glimpse of what is at stake for humanity as artificial intelligence rapidly evolves. "The film is a journey of understanding that casts me as sort of a proxy for everyone, as a pea-brain regular person who's trying to understand what the (expletive) is going on in the world," Roher told The Associated Press earlier this year in an interview alongside Tyrell. Their questions were straightforward: What is it? Why is it good? Why is it bad? And what do we need to know? "And that simple task," Roher said, "was (expletive) impossible. It was like making a film about outer space or China or the Bible. Like, fit that into 90 minutes." A Sisyphean task "Impossible" was a sentiment shared by many who worked on the film, which opens in theaters Friday. Producer Diane Becker said it was the most challenging movie she's ever made, a Sisyphean task where, "literally the minute we started making it, it was out of date." But they were emboldened by the urgency of the subject and the idea that what they were making might be not just a primer about an elusive subject, but a necessary, nonpartisan call to action. "The AI Doc" is about something bigger than AI... Read More