Why Amazon Dropped Its OpenAI Movie, Data Center Workers Fight Back, and Meta Leaks Employee Data

This week on Uncanny Valley, our hosts discuss Amazon’s controversial decision to drop Luca Guadagnino’s film about OpenAI’s Sam Altman—which reportedly did not paint him in a favorable light. Alongside Google DeepMind’s $75 million brand new partnership with indie film studio A24, how much of a dent is AI actually having in the films we see? They also dive into the recent upheaval of workers—from electricians to software engineers—against data centers. Plus: Meta’s program to track employees’ data gets paused after a massive leak, and Anthropic is now getting along with the government thanks to CEO Dario Amodei no longer being in the room. Articles mentioned in this episode: - A24 Knows You’re Mad About the Google AI Collab - Some Electricians Think Building Data Centers Is for Sellouts - Meta Pauses Employee-Tracking Program Following Internal Data Leak - The Trump White House Is Over Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei You can follow Brian Barrett on Bluesky at @brbarrett, Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer, and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at [email protected]. How to Listen You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts and search for “uncanny valley.” We’re on Spotify too. Transcript Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors. Brian Barrett: Hey, this is Brian. Before we start, two quick things. If you've been enjoying listening to the show, we would appreciate it if you took a second to rate it in your podcast app of choice. It really helps us reach more people. And second, if you have any questions related to tech, privacy, or politics that you would like me, Zoë, and Leah to take on, now is the time to submit them to [email protected]. It doesn't matter how big or how small, we want to hear from you and get you answers. OK, on to the show. Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED's Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoë Schiffer, director of business and industry. Brian Barrett: I'm Brian Barrett, executive editor. Leah Feiger: And I'm Leah Feiger, director of politics and science. Zoë Schiffer: Today on the show: AI and Hollywood. We're discussing Amazon's MGM Studios’ sudden decision to drop the OpenAI biographical movie just as they were wrapping up production. At the same time, Google's DeepMind is investing $75 million to develop AI tools with the film studio A24. The AI and film industries are becoming increasingly intertwined and we're ready to take a look at where this is all headed. Leah Feiger: We'll also dive into some recent controversies regarding data centers. As national and local backlash against data center construction increases, some electricians are even refusing to work on them and they're not alone. A group of Amazon workers claim they are being investigated for speaking out in favor of regulation. Brian Barrett: And if you've been listening to the show in recent weeks or reading WIRED, you know that we've been covering the unfolding internal crisis at Meta very closely. This week we had another scoop, the controversial system that tracked employees every keystroke and screen activity has been paused after the company leaked sensitive data from it internally. We'll get into whether this series of frustrating incidents could actually lead to change within the company. Leah Feiger: And later in the show, we'll get an update on how the talks between Anthropic and the government seem to be improving now that CEO Dario Amodei isn't in the room. Zoë Schiffer: OK guys, I am so excited to talk about the business with this movie Artificial, which was suddenly dropped by Amazon's MGM Studios. So to get everyone up to speed, Artificial is a film by the director of Call Me by Your Name and Challengers, two great movies if I do say so. And it's a biographical drama about OpenAI and specifically The Blip, which was this moment in November 2023 when Sam Altman was abruptly fired by his board of directors and then swiftly rehired after basically the whole company revolted. I genuinely cannot believe they made an entire movie about this. Brian Barrett: Yeah. Zoë Schiffer: It's been described as The Social Network, but for the AI Age. The movie features a star-studded cast with Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman and Monica Barbaro as the former OpenAI CTO, Mira Murati. The movie was like mid-budget. I think they spent $40 million on production, but it was basically almost done when Amazon announced that they were dropping the film saying, "It would be better served if it were released by another studio." The decision has been drawing criticism because it's seen as Amazon basically doing a solid for Sam Altman, who the movie portrays pretty badly. I have to know what you guys think. Leah Feiger: I have so many thoughts immediately. One, Andrew Garfield, we knew that. We knew it was always going to be him. Playing whiny tech bros is absolutely in his wheelhouse. Zoë Schiffer: He famously played the Facebook cofounder who was kind of pushed out by Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. Brian Barrett: I think too, there's some context here too, which is that Amazon has $50 billion invested in OpenAI, right? So in terms of like, when they say the movie will be better served by another studio, I think what they really mean is the studio will be better served by another movie, right? This is really like— Leah Feiger: For sure. Brian Barrett: —arm's length at this. What really strikes me about it is something that we've known is coming and has been happening, but the extent to which the film industry and the tech industry are intertwined right now. Amazon owns MGM. Paramount is being acquired by the Ellison family, Larry Ellison, obviously the founder of Oracle. So all these tech billionaires are now sort of totally intertwined with the movie industry, which is really going to determine what movies get made and what don't. And this is like a really glaring example of that. Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. I mean, I can speak firsthand that there were many Twitter/Elon Musk film project that were in talks, but very difficult to get that to the screen for obvious reasons. I do think the film was, everything we heard was that it was going to be unflattering for Sam Altman. In fact, The Blip is pretty unflattering for Sam Altman because the reason that a lot of Sam Altman's executives turned on him and orchestrated what has been called a coup was that they perceived him to be duplicitous, to lie, to tell different people different things based on what he thought they wanted them to hear. And in the film, it really seems like Ilya Sutskever, who is the former chief scientist of OpenAI, really comes off as the hero. He's gone on to found another company that's really focused on safe artificial intelligence. And so it doesn't entirely surprise me that this was going to be a complicated project for Amazon to champion. In addition to the investment that you just talked about, Brian, they've also struck a $38 billion compute deal somewhat recently. Brian Barrett: And Sam Altman was a guest at Jeff Bezos's wedding last year. It's personal, it's financial, it's all of these things. Zoë Schiffer: Right. Brian Barrett: And you sort of hope, like the idealized version of this, right, is that they would treat it the same way as they maybe treat the media industry when you have these billionaires taking over at these companies where it's sort of a hands-off, you do what you do. I trust the art. I'm doing this because I believe in it. That's not the case. It's less and less the case in the media industry as well. Jeff Bezos obviously has made some pretty big changes at The Washington Post, that there's sort of this exertion influence that you, in an ideal world, would not be happening. Powerful interests have owned Hollywood companies for a long time, but this is sort of just such an overt case. Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. And I think that for OpenAI, they're really sensitive right now to public opinion. They feel like, and they're not the only ones, Anthropic feels this way too, that AI is increasingly unpopular. There's already been some talks about Sam Altman being ousted again before OpenAI goes public as soon as this year, probably next year. And so I think that while you might say, "Oh, they can just brush this off. They're focused on other things." They're used to bad media articles and perhaps negative portrayals. I think that they're increasingly trying to control the message. Brian Barrett: And also the medium, right? I think the other deal that happened this week that drew a lot of eyebrows was Google DeepMind announcing a $75 million investment in A24, beloved indie darling, to create AI tools. Leah, I know you feel strongly and sadly about this. Leah Feiger: Yeah. But the thing is I kind of hate A24. Brian Barrett: Oh. Leah Feiger: It's already so programmatic anyway. I'm like, ah, yes, another film in this exact sepia tone that has these exact actors playing these exact roles. The minute that I saw that it was A24 getting into bed with Google DeepMind, I was like, "Perfect. This was already an algorithm waiting to happen. Of course they're going to give it to the bots." Zoë Schiffer: Well, this content is made for me. I'm a huge fan of A24. However, I've talked to a lot of people in Hollywood about this because there have been all of these deals, and yet we've seen OpenAI and Anthropic, like these big AI labs kind of hint that we will be able to produce films with AI really soon. And then you actually see an AI-generated film and you're like, certainly not. But what I am hearing is that AI is being used more and more for very specific purposes. It's things like storyboarding. And I believe that in the press release, Google DeepMind and A24 kind of mentioned that as a possible use case. It's things like rotoscoping, basically very labor-intensive, specific areas of the film development process that used to take a lot of human labor and were really expensive and you can genuinely automate. Those are, as far as some people think, really good use cases for AI. And I think we will start to see more and more shots, like specific shots on the big screen that are AI-generated. I think I would be very surprised if we see a feature-length film on the big screen that's AI-generated start to finish and is anything other than a one-off gimmick. There's an ick factor in realizing that something that you engaged with was AI-generated and you didn't know that I actually think is important not to dismiss. And then there's the like, can it actually create something that is quality enough to appear in that type of context? Brian Barrett: I do think too, one thing that, this gets to your point earlier, Zoë, that when people see that there's a deal for $75 million, you assume that it's to train AI. You assume that it's going to be, oh, now Google's going to absorb all of A24 stuff into the borg and like—but it's not that. So it's interesting that it's still controversial obviously, but that it is really for those, like trying to find those purpose-built tools to support the creation of non-AI film, which gets lost and is, yeah. Zoë Schiffer: You need a human. I think there was fear that Google would be training its models on the A24 catalog and that's specifically not part of the deal. I think probably Google wanted access to that IP, if I had to guess, but it would be a really bad brand move for A24 to give them that access. Brian Barrett: We've talked about how everything's connected—file one more connection under this: A24 has Thrive Capital—is one of its investors. That is a venture capital firm owned by Josh Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner. Thrive has OpenAI as a major investment, holds a major stake in SpaceX, Warner Brothers about to be owned by the Ellison family—just a lot going on in terms of everybody owned by anybody related to everybody. Leah Feiger: Film industry trying to cozy up to AI. There are other people that hate it for all sorts of different reasons too. Beyond creativity concerns, there is an ongoing pattern that we've been keeping an eye on, the sustained and increasing backlash against data centers across the country. Today, more than 40 percent of homes in the US are within five miles of an operating data center, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. And the construction boom just keeps going as the big AI companies devote billions and billions of dollars towards infrastructure to keep up with the demand. WIRED has reported about residents pushing back against data center construction in their communities from everything that it brings, from higher electricity bills to water scarcity, noise, you name it. So workers that are in theory, the ones implementing these projects are actually pushing back too in any way they can. Have you guys been following this? Brian Barrett: Yeah, it's been interesting to see this evolution. I think we've talked a lot about communities pushing back and that remains an important story, but we've had a couple of stories on WIRED and there've been stories elsewhere about people who are directly involved. Caroline Haskins, a WIRED staff writer, had a great look at how electricians—right?—electricians are crucial to building data centers. Some of them are now saying, "Wait a minute, does this make you a sellout? Does working on a data center mean that you are kind of betraying broader principles, not just electrician principles, just human principles?" Zoë Schiffer: You're missing the best part of that story, which was when the electrician said that it's really hard to date once he tells people that he's an electrician who works on data centers. Brian Barrett: It's like Cybertrucks. It's like owning a Cybertruck. Zoë Schiffer: It really did remind me of that. Brian Barrett: Working on a data center is the new owning a Cybertruck. Zoë Schiffer: The difficult thing about this, I think, I mean, so yeah. People don't want to live near data centers. They spike your energy bills, they're loud, and bright, and take all sorts of resources. I think that makes a lot of sense. In terms of countrywide economic initiatives, data centers in some ways feel like all we have. Am I going to get skewered for saying that? I'm just like, this is like the big thing, AI is the big thing that America is betting on and I think it's complicated to try and slow that down or roll that back rather than try and push for them to be less horrible to live near. Brian Barrett: But I think here's the thing. I agree. The building of data centers and investment in AI is the US economy at this point. And when that goes away— Zoë Schiffer: Right. Brian Barrett: It's going to be really, really painful. I think a lot of the pushback though, which is that there's not really muc