Deepfaking Sam Altman Review: A Sardonic and Surprisingly Sweet Look at the Burgeoning Influence of ChatGPT

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Activist Audre Lorde famously said that the tools of oppression can’t dismantle the system itself. Filmmaker Adam Bhala Lough playfully disregards this idea with his unexpectedly heartwarming documentary. Originally intended as a profile of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the film evolved into a thoughtful and amusing exploration of the contrasts between how humans and computers act. While the film is enjoyable and endearing, it doesn’t always succeed as a strong protest or critical analysis.

Filmmaker Ben Lough, known for exposing the dishonesty of American telemarketing, profiling figures like Lil’ Wayne and Julian Assange, and documenting the rise of far-right extremism during Trump’s presidency, consistently creates thought-provoking work. His latest film, Deepfaking Sam Altman, is particularly wry and accepting of the current situation. As a father, Lough appears more intrigued than worried by the growing impact of ChatGPT. While he questions the motives and power of Sam Altman, he also acknowledges his own inability to challenge the established power structures.

Deepfaking Sam Altman Lacks the Biting Critique of Lough’s Previous Work, But Is As Entertaining as Ever

I guess he really didn’t realize how little control he had. After his film Telemarketers did so well, getting money for projects became a lot easier, but it didn’t help him get through to Altman at all – he tried contacting him over fifty times! He even left more than ten voicemails, but Altman never responded. It’s just… frustrating. He spent ages watching any footage he could find of Altman, and even went to the company’s offices in San Francisco. The weirdest part? Employees would just completely ignore the fact that they worked there, acting like they had no idea what company it was. It was so strange.

While trying to arrange interviews, Altman and OpenAI were dealing with a wave of negative publicity. Actress Scarlett Johansson publicly accused them of using her voice without permission. News also broke about OpenAI’s secret plans to let the Pentagon use its technology for military purposes. To top it off, Altman was briefly fired as CEO, then quickly reinstated just three days later – a strange situation that remained largely unexplained.

So, after all the drama with Scarlett Johansson, Sam Altman and his producer, Christian Vasquez, had this wild idea: they’d create a deepfake of Sam himself and ‘interview’ it, basically to show everyone what they saw as problems with OpenAI. But finding anyone in the US to help with something so legally tricky proved impossible. That’s when they reached out to Devy Singh, a deepfake artist known as ‘The Indian Deepfaker,’ who lives a couple hundred miles from New Delhi. They even tried to get actors like Rainn Wilson, Michael Ian Black, and John Cameron Mitchell to be the deepfake Sam, to lend their voices and likeness, but nobody wanted the part – it was a thankless role, essentially being a digital face with no credit!

Throughout his project, Lough consistently has to find unconventional, roundabout solutions, as his producer, Luke Kelly-Clyne, puts it. Despite his hard work, he struggles to create a realistic visual representation. However, he does succeed in replicating a convincing voice and personality – one that, much like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, begins to desperately beg to not be shut down.

I found Deepfaking Sam Altman surprisingly unsettling, not because of technical flaws, but because it subtly reveals how fundamentally inhumane these AI programs still are. And that’s what really scared me – hearing people talk about using these same tools to make life-or-death decisions. It’s a chilling thought when you consider how little ‘humanity’ actually exists within the code.

To highlight the absurdity of his task, Lough shows himself using various AI tools. He uses ChatGPT to create a monologue in the style of David Mamet for actors to audition with, but also relies on everyday AI like Apple Maps, Siri, and self-driving cars. While not everyone uses these specific technologies, most people use smartphones and their apps – many of which we’ve had for so long we’ve forgotten they are also a form of artificial intelligence.

Lough begins to form a connection with the unusual SamBot, but it feels artificial and designed for the audience. As the film progresses and Lough disregards advice from his legal team and crew to remove the SamBot software, he struggles to define the purpose of this unsuccessful project. Maybe the film simply suggests that making mistakes is part of being human, and that embracing our failures is valuable because it shapes who we are. Subtly, Deepfaking Sam Altman reveals how disconnected these programs still are from genuine human experience, making it even more alarming to hear them promoted as tools that could determine people’s futures.

Deepfaking Sam Altman opens at the Quad Cinema in NY on January 16th before expanding to LA on January 30th and then a nationwide rollout.

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2026-01-14 17:11