Andrew Garfield ‘Got a Bit Scared’ of ChatGPT After Playing Sam Altman

Portraying OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in the upcoming film “Artificial” didn’t make Andrew Garfield an AI enthusiast.

In fact, Garfield said it had the opposite effect during an interview with Variety published on Tuesday.

“I got a bit scared. I felt a little mistrusting of the technology,” Garfield said. “It feels like the people who are creating and kind of encouraging us to use the technology don’t exactly know its capacity themselves. So, that feels a little irresponsible to me, personally.”

Garfield said he’s used ChatGPT for research or as a “kind of fancy Google,” but doesn’t need to rely on AI for his career.

“Luckily, I don’t need it in my life in the same way other people in other industries might as an actor,” Garfield said.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, “Artificial” details the turbulent period when Altman was temporarily ousted from OpenAI in 2023. The film will be a who’s who of Silicon Valley, with Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever, Monica Barbaro as Mira Murati, Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, and Cooper Hoffman as Greg Brockman. The film hits select theaters on Christmas Day.

In interviews, Altman has said he has some reservations about the film.

“I’m sure it won’t be accurate, but I hope it’s funny and enjoyable to watch,” he told Politico’s Decoded this week.

Altman told Vanity Fair he had seen the film’s trailer and that Garfield had mastered some of his mannerisms.

“They filmed outside of our house. There were these notices on our street that there was going to be some filming or whatever. I didn’t realize what was going on. I paid no attention,” he said. “And then one morning I was walking down the street to get coffee, and there were all these cameras, and there was a guy dressed exactly like me with my same backpack walking so much that I felt I was in some weird glitch of the simulation or something.”

He called the moment “very strange.”

“Then I immediately figured out what was happening. We waved and went on, but it was really weird. I mean, it’s like a strange thing to see someone that has nailed your kind of quirky mannerisms or whatever,” Altman said.