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OpenAI Drama 'Artificial' Unveils First Look and Trailer

Luca Guadagnino's OpenAI drama 'Artificial' released its first still and trailer, with Andrew Garfield starring as Sam Altman.

2026-09-08 ~ 2026-09-09 · 2 episodes · 7 posts

Episode 1 · First Look at Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman in Artificial (2026-09-08, 2 posts)

The film Artificial released its first still of Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman, focusing on the chaotic week in 2023 when Altman was fired and reinstated as OpenAI CEO.

Episode 2 · First Trailer for OpenAI Drama 'Artificial' with Andrew Garfield as Altman (2026-09-09, 5 posts)

The first trailer for ARTIFICIAL, Luca Guadagnino's OpenAI-themed film, dropped on September 9: Andrew Garfield plays Sam Altman and Yura Borisov plays Ilya Sutskever, with the plot centering on the boardroom drama of Altman being fired by the board and swiftly reinstated. The film hits theaters December 25.

Confirmed

  • The film is titled ARTIFICIAL, directed by Luca Guadagnino, starring Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman and Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever, releasing December 25, 2025.
  • The trailer features dedicated characters modeled on OpenAI researchers Jakub and Woj.

Unconfirmed

  • The real-life identities of other characters in the trailer are purely fan speculation: Anthropic researcher jachiam0 suggested the figure in the lower left is Dario and the one on the right is Greg, also pointing out Sam, Ilya, Jared Kaplan and others; willdepue and others' comparisons also diverge (e.g., whether "lower left is Dario" actually refers to Greg), with no official confirmation on any of these.

Why It Matters

  • This marks the first time the OpenAI governance crisis has been brought to the screen as a mainstream biopic. With an A-list cast and a high-profile director, plus a Christmas release date, it carries strong buzz and mass-appeal potential — and brings AI-industry figures into pop-culture discussion in a "spot yourself" way.