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<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><span class="section-lead">Big Tech is</span> back on the big screen—but its bosses might not be thrilled.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This fall, Hollywood will release four movies on tech executives: Luca Guadagnino's <em>Artificial</em>, on CEO Sam Altman's tumultuous time as the head of OpenAI; Aaron Sorkin's <em>The Social Reckoning</em>, on <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/new-mexico-jury-finds-facebook-liable-of-deceiving-users-about-privacy-protections">the investigation</a> into Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/05/facebook-whistleblower-testifies-before-senate-committee.html">dismissing</a> its platforms' negative impacts on young users and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/25/business/ethiopia-violence-facebook-papers-cmd-intl/index.html">inciting violence</a> and hate speech; the all-encompassing <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27041231/"><em>Musk</em></a>, by documentarian Alex Gibney, on the Tesla and SpaceX CEO's family life, corporate controversies, and engagement in right-wing politics; and <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt45368240/">You Can See Everything</a></em>, an unsettling documentary in which directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim follow Elizabeth Holmes, who invited them to film her in the weeks before she began serving her federal prison sentence for defrauding investors at the now-defunct health tech company Theranos.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If the 2010s brought the first major wave of examining Silicon Valley leaders, such as <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/10/the-social-network-got-facebook-and-zuckerberg-all-wrong">relatively human</a><strong> </strong>depictions of Zuckerberg with <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/"><em>The Social Network</em></a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357129/">multiple</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2080374/">movies</a> on longtime Apple CEO Steve Jobs—they largely paint pictures of difficult, ambitious individuals who may have burned a few bridges to achieve the remarkable—this recent group represents an opportunity, as I wrote <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/get-ready-for-openais-the-social-network-movie-moment/">in September</a>, to rethink that perspective. </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Since the 2010s, public opinion about Big Tech companies has<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/07/29/americans-have-become-much-less-positive-about-tech-companies-impact-on-the-u-s/"> tanked</a>. My colleagues and I have extensively covered the increasingly apparent harms that tech CEOs have overseen, including using AI <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/05/iran-war-weapons-sales-israel-qatar-kuwait-uae-marco-rubio-congress/">in wars overseas</a> and the continuing development of a mass surveillance state <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/how-your-data-is-powering-trumps-surveillance-state/">at home</a>. </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In a July poll reported by <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/07/29/little-tech-big-tech-americans-power">Axios</a>, about seven in ten Americans said they believe tech companies and their CEOs hold too much power. </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">On <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/04/sam-altman-decoded-interview-ai-01106217">Politico's <em>Decoded</em> podcast</a> this week, Altman asserted that "the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this [AI] technology" as people will do "tremendously—orders of magnitude more—good stuff than bad stuff" with it. </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Early reports around <em>Artificial,</em> directed by <em>Challengers</em>’ Luca Guadagnino, starring Andrew Garfield as Altman, and covering his firing and reinstatement as OpenAI CEO <a href="https://abcnews.com/Business/sam-altman-reaches-deal-return-ceo-openai/story?id=105091534">in under a week</a> in 2023, suggest that the film will have a more critical view on the executive—the Altman of<em> Artificial</em> says "yes" to everyone, <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/luca-guadagnino-artificial-openai-movie.html"><em>Vulture</em> wrote in a piece interviewing Guadagnino</a> on Friday.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The narcissist has the ability to understand the terrain and adapt to it, shape-shift,” Guadagnino <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/luca-guadagnino-artificial-openai-movie.html">told <em>Vulture</em></a>—which he sees as having<strong> </strong>larger ramifications: "People that have a lot of power should be very much aware that you must be responsible for the community."</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I think anyone who takes on that level of responsibility for a company or a technology that you know is going to do a hell of a lot of damage to the soul of humanity [must have] a certain ability to dissociate,” Garfield <a href="https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/film/a73473247/andrew-garfield-interview-2026/">told <em>Esquire</em></a> in August.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Amazon MGM Studios <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/global/luca-guadagnino-sam-altman-movie-artificial-dropped-amazon-1236785830/">dropped the movie</a> in June, shortly after Amazon announced a $50 billion investment into OpenAI. Big Tech and the <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/the-end-of-cbs-news/">wealthy elite</a> are now more closely tied to culture, art, and media. In a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/story/sam-altman-exclusive-interview-part-1"><em>Vanity Fair</em> cover story</a> released Monday, Altman said that he did not speak to anyone at Amazon about <em>Artificial</em> and that, based on <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/get-ready-for-openais-the-social-network-movie-moment/">the movie trailer</a>, he didn’t feel the filmmakers were “going for accuracy.” </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Countries will fall. Industries are gonna collapse,” Garfield says in that trailer. “And we get to be the ones to shepherd people into this new world.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Artificial</em>, which independent film company Neon <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/06/artificial-movie-luca-guadagnino-eyes-neon-distributor-1236971435/">acquired</a> later that month, premieres Monday at the New York Film Festival.</p>