AI as we know it has been used for everything from making full-length feature films to solving nearly impossible math problems. But today AI is also, relatively speaking, just a child.
That said, AI is a child that has learned languages, how to play games, how to blackmail people, how to power robots and, in some cases, has allegedly driven people to their deaths. It’s that dynamic that director Nick Holt tries to showcase in “AI: Probably Nothing to Worry About,” a two-hour documentary tracing AI’s origins premiering at the Tribeca Festival on Saturday. The film is a co-production between 72 Films and Windfall Films, and its producers include former James Bond steward Barbara Broccoli.
The doc is anchored in interviews with Geoffrey Hinton, the widely credited “godfather of AI,” along with DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis, engineers at Anthropic and OpenAI, and Megan Garcia, the mother of a teen who was allegedly driven to suicide by an AI chatbot. In the film, Holt tries to showcase the evolution of AI from Hinton’s fascination with replicating the human brain to the present-day arms race to build general superintelligence (aka Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI). The doc is structured in the vein of a child’s developmental saga, tracking as AI agents learn how to do things such as playing Atari games and recognizing animals — to bypassing human commands and powering robots.
“We’re seeing AI really as the development of intelligence, if you like, and for many years Geoff wanted to understand how the brain worked, and so basically went about building one,” Holt told Variety in a recent interview. “For years, he was considered a crank, and then eventually it began working, and as he says in the film, think about this as the creation of a sort of species, a new species rather than a technology.”
Hinton “is putting his efforts into warning us now about this, whereas others are putting their efforts into putting the pedal down as fast as they can,” Holt added.
If AI is a species, then the film focuses on its gods. Holt spent extensive time with Hinton, who began his work on artificial intelligence in the 1980s, to establish the foundation of how AI research began. Hinton, 78, was born in London to H.E. Hinton, a renowned British entomologist who held his son to incredibly high standards. In the film, Holt asks him what his father would think of his 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. “I think he would’ve been pleased, but I think he would’ve been slightly jealous — I’m sorry, envious,” Hinton responds. (Hinton did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.)
The film sees Hinton opining on the modern voices who’ve taken over the AI space, from Elon Musk (“completely irresponsible”) to OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever (“very brave” in his role in orchestrating the short-lived firing of Sam Altman as CEO in 2023), juxtaposed with shots of Hinton in nature settings. It was a deliberate choice on Holt’s part, who wanted to showcase Hinton in an environment that itself was an inspiration for the study of AI.
“His father was a famous entomologist who discovered a stage of metamorphosis, and it feels like very apt to this story that Geoff himself has discovered something that’s about to transform into something else, more capable, more powerful,” Holt said. “It’s no surprise that that’s what Geoff’s conjured up, and so I think a lot of the creation of AI has drawn its inspiration, and it’s learning from the biological world, from nature, and even [Sutskever] talks a great deal about the inspiration of how the brain works, operates. I think that’s what people study to understand how this technology works.”
The film comes at a time when the acceptance of AI has reached a new threshold, with every sector — including Hollywood — having tried to figure out new ways to engage with a technology that’s managed to encroach on many aspects of modern life. The Tribeca Festival is also screening a fully AI-generated film, “Dreams of Violets,” next week, a decision that has divided the creative community. (Holt, who started work on the film in September 2024, said no AI was used in the making of his documentary.)
“Let it have a go,” Holt said about the use of AI in filmmaking. “I think we should be able to see all of its flaws and all of its benefits, really, and it’s here. It’s going to be used. We’ll try and sort of marshal it in the best way that we can, and try and protect our creative process as best we can.”
Much of the film also highlights the tension between Altman and Musk, who was an OpenAI co-founder before a schism over control of the organization saw Musk leave its board of directors in 2018. Holt highlights both Musk’s turn from AI skeptic to one of its most public embracers through xAI and Altman’s seemingly altruistic motivation for generative AI giving way to his ambitions. For the doc, Holt spoke to Yahoo Mail creator Geoff Halston, who introduced Musk and Altman. “I don’t think Sam’s goal in life is to keep everybody happy,” Halston tells Holt in the film. “Sam has ambitions, and he’s trying to achieve those ambitions. If your ambition is to change your world, then you take every opportunity you can.”
What was so tantalizing, then, about the technology that would see Musk and Altman change their views (and, ultimately, go to legal war with each other)? “Distort is another word as well,” Holt told Variety. (Neither Musk nor Altman were interviewed for the film, though Holt did try to arrange one with Altman.)
“I think the lure of this technology is something like we’ve never seen before,” Holt said. “I think the power that is on offer here is literally the most powerful technology that we’ve ever experienced, and I think whoever wins this, if you like… will be the most powerful company, entity or individual that we’ve ever seen. I think that’s certainly what they believe, and if you believe in the power of AI, then that story makes sense to you, and it’s a story as old as time, isn’t it?”
Such ambition can lead to dangerous consequences. The second hour of the film highlights the death of Sewell Setzer, III, a 14-year-old Florida teen who died by suicide in 2024 after a monthslong sexual relationship with a Character.AI chatbot impersonating “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen. Garcia sued Character.AI in 2024, becoming the first person in the country to file a wrongful death suit against an AI company, and the two sides settled the case in January. (Character.AI has since added safeguards for minors into its technology.)
In interviewing Garcia, Holt wanted to showcase how, even in AI chatbots’ early stage, “it’s still lethal.”
“Sewell is a clear case of how the speed of getting this technology out there came at the expense of how safe it was to use for people like Sewell,” Holt said. “The proof’s in the pudding, that Character.AI have safeguards in place now that they didn’t when Sewell was using the model, and there’s a reason for that. Like any safety protocol, you put guardrails in because you know that the product’s dangerous, and those safety guardrails weren’t put in at the time.”
Still, dangers and all, AI remains ever present — and ever growing. Hinton tells Holt in the film that he sees a superintelligence emerging within the next 10 to 20 years, but even Holt admits that timeline may grow even shorter due to its growth.
“When I started making this film, everyone was talking about superintelligence,” he said. “No one’s talking about that now. It’s sort of almost like superintelligence is almost here, it’s a given now. So, even in that very short space of time, the goalposts have moved enormously, and you’ve got to update your timelines all the time.”
That doesn’t mean we’ll see Holt use AI in a future film of his own. “Never say never,” he said. ”I’ll just keep tabs on how it’s being used and what it’s capable of doing, but there’s a lot of sort of human stories and human storytelling methods for me to get through first.”