Why Playing Sam Altman Made Andrew Garfield Quit AI for Good

Andrew Garfield has spent his career diving headfirst into complex, transformative roles, but his latest deep dive into Silicon Valley’s most influential mind hit a little too close to home.

Rather than walking away from playing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman with a newfound appreciation for the tech revolution, the Oscar-nominated actor recently admitted that immersing himself in the world of artificial intelligence left him so rattled he completely wiped the company’s flagship tool from his phone.

The Behind-the-Scenes Shift That Pushed Andrew Garfield Off ChatGPT

Garfield appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote The Uprising while also discussing his other major upcoming release, Artificial, in which he plays OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during the company’s chaotic 2023 boardroom crisis.

Kimmel noted the two roles could not be more different, calling Altman a Silicon Valley figure at the center of a real 2023 leadership shake-up compared to Garfield’s other current character. Garfield agreed the contrast was jarring.

“It’s a really interesting, it was a really interesting experience,” Garfield said.

When Kimmel asked if the role left him nervous about artificial intelligence, Garfield initially deflected with a joke before getting honest about the real effect the project had on him.

“It’s the same thing that happened to me when I did The Social Network, which was I got off Facebook immediately. I got off my ChatGPT immediately,” he added. “I don’t really know even how to explain why, but just the more you know, the more you realize we’re careening into some very unknown territory.”

The comparison tracks. Garfield played Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in 2010’s The Social Network, a role that reportedly soured him on the platform he had just spent months recreating on screen. Sixteen years later, he says Artificial had the same effect, this time aimed at the chatbot sitting on his phone.

Garfield added that what unsettled him most wasn’t secrecy but candor, pointing to how openly the people behind the technology discuss the uncertainty ahead.

“I think what I suppose is good and transparent is they’re like, yeah, no, we kind of don’t know who’s going to lose their jobs and how we’re going to create an economy that works for ordinary people, but we’re going to find out and I promise you it’s going to be awesome. That feels like that’s solid to go on.”

Artificial dramatizes the five days in November 2023 when OpenAI’s board fired Altman before reinstating him as CEO. Garfield built the performance from court transcripts and independent research rather than any direct contact with Altman himself. The film premieres at the New York Film Festival on October 5 before a limited theatrical release from Neon on Christmas Day.