Amazon has reportedly walked away from Artificial, a film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to The Verge. The movie, directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Andrew Garfield, had been in the works for about a year and was, per Kotaku, nearly complete.
The story it tells is a dramatic one: the five days in 2023 spanning Altman's sudden termination and reinstatement as OpenAI's chief executive — what Engadget describes as the company's 2023 leadership crisis.
What makes the cancellation notable is the timing. Multiple outlets, including The Guardian, Business Insider and Rolling Stone, report that Amazon dropped the project after the company deepened its ties with OpenAI through a new partnership. Kotaku reports the deal between the two companies was worth $50 billion.
In other words, a studio appears to have shelved a finished or near-finished film depicting an unflattering chapter in its new business partner's history. The Verge frames the move as Amazon MGM dropping a project it had backed for roughly a year, and Engadget notes the biopic will now have to find a new studio if it is to be released.
Neither Amazon nor OpenAI is quoted in the source items offering a reason for the decision, and the reporting is described as based on reports rather than official confirmation.
Why it matters: as tech giants pour billions into AI partnerships, this episode raises a pointed question about whether those commercial alliances can quietly shape which stories about the industry's most powerful figures actually reach the public.