New York — Andrew Garfield has stopped using ChatGPT after portraying OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial,” saying his work on the film made him more cautious about the technology.
Garfield was previously among ChatGPT’s 1.2 billion users. But after working on “Artificial,” which explores OpenAI’s origins and Altman’s dramatic 2023 departure from the company, he decided to stop using the chatbot altogether.
“I got a bit scared,” Garfield told Variety at the “Artificial” premiere at the New York Film Festival. “I felt a little mistrusting of the technology. It feels like the people who are encouraging us to use the technologies don’t exactly know its capacities themselves. That feels a little irresponsible, to me personally.”
The concerns surrounding AI and safety are central to “Artificial.” OpenAI has faced criticism over efforts to rapidly develop artificial intelligence, while the company has also encountered several challenges over the past six months, including the shutdown of its generative-AI video app Sora and increased scrutiny within the technology industry.
“Luckily, I don’t need [ChatGPT] in my life in the same way that other people in other industries might,” Garfield said. “As an actor, I was using it as a kind of fancy Google for some research purposes. I know that it’s not what it’s meant for.”
More than half of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about AI becoming increasingly common in everyday life, according to Pew Research Center. Concerns about artificial intelligence have also become increasingly prominent among Hollywood creatives, including actors.
Garfield said he does not believe AI will make actors obsolete.
“I don’t think actors are going to be rendered useless,” he said. “The soul of humanity is the soul of humanity. And I think actors are some of the people that have to hold the soul of humanity for all of us and stories.”
Garfield’s performance as Altman received strong reviews following the “Artificial” premiere. Variety’s Clayton Davis praised his “Norman Bates-inspired turn” and predicted that the actor could become a frontrunner for a best supporting actor nomination at this year’s Academy Awards.
Will Angus, who plays former OpenAI employee and Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei in the film, said Garfield captured Altman’s mannerisms remarkably closely.
“He has this vocal fry in between lines, kind of when he’s thinking, that he really nailed,” Angus said. “The walk, the head movements. It was spooky.”
Altman has also praised Garfield’s recreation of his walk and other mannerisms, although he does not expect the movie to provide an “accurate” account of his ousting and subsequent reinstatement.
“That’s a very generous thing for him to say,” Garfield said. “I imagine it must be incredibly strange and surreal to be a young man, as he is, to know that there’s a film where a version of him is being depicted. I feel quite sensitive and compassionate towards that. I’d personally feel really vulnerable and probably angry. That’s just me. He seems very chill about it.”
Garfield added that portraying real people and powerful figures on screen raises questions about how power should be examined.
“It’s a curious thing what we do, but as Luca has said, the people who are in power in our world right now, it’s our duty to interrogate that power.”
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