Amazon has dropped Artificial, a nearly finished film about OpenAI and its co-founder Sam Altman, only months after the company deepened its ties to the AI firm.
The movie, directed by Luca Guadagnino, was set up at Amazon MGM Studios and stars Andrew Garfield as Altman, according to TheWrap. Multiple outlets, including the Washington Times and ScreenCrush, report the project was close to complete when the studio backed away.
In explaining the move, Amazon said Artificial "will be better served if it were released by a different studio," rather than killing the film outright.
The timing is what has drawn attention. As several reports note, the decision came roughly two months after Amazon — the company built by Jeff Bezos — said it would invest $50 billion in OpenAI as part of a "multi-year partnership." NME, Decrypt and others tie the studio's retreat directly to that deal.
The film reportedly centers on the turbulent events of 2023, when Altman was abruptly removed as OpenAI's CEO and then reinstated just days later — one of the most dramatic boardroom episodes in recent tech history. That subject matter sits awkwardly alongside a new business alliance with the very company being depicted.
Not everyone is taking the studio's framing at face value. The Playlist argued the "optics are damning," suggesting the corporate relationship, not creative judgment, drove the decision.
Why it matters: The episode shows how a media company's business deals can shape which stories its studio is willing to tell — a tension that grows sharper as the same tech giants that fund AI also own the platforms that decide what audiences get to watch.