The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a 2026 American documentary film directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2026, which was followed by a theatrical release in the United States on March 27, 2026, by Focus Features. It received mostly positive reviews from critics.
Premise
Told through the perspective of filmmaker Daniel Roher as he prepares to become a father, the film investigates the existential threats and potential promises of artificial intelligence. Roher conducts interviews with leading experts in the field to understand the world his child will inherit, balancing anxiety with "apocaloptimism".
Interviewees
Deborah Raji Jason Matheny Aza Raskin Tristan Harris Dan Hendrycks Connor Leahy Yoshua Bengio Ilya Sutskever Shane Legg Daniel Kokotajlo Jan Leike Demis Hassabis Yuval Noah Harari Eliezer Yudkowsky Peter Diamandis Guillaume Verdon Daniela Amodei Reid Hoffman Karen Hao Emily M. Bender Timnit Gebru Sneha Revanur Ramesh Srinivasan Sam Altman Dario Amodei Shaw Walters
Production The documentary is co-directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell. The film is produced by Shane Boris, Diane Becker, and filmmaking duo Daniel Kwan and Jonathan Wang. In October 2024, Focus Features acquired worldwide rights to the film, with its parent Universal Pictures handling international distribution.
Release The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist was selected for the "Premieres" section at the Sundance Film Festival, where it made its debut on January 27, 2026.
It was released in U.S. theaters by Focus Features on March 27, 2026.
Reception Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. References
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