Guadagnino’s Artificial — which was originally going to be released by Amazon — also faced unexpected marketing challenges this year. The streaming giant backed out of its deal to distribute the film this past June, just months after announcing that it was investing $50 billion in OpenAI. All of that made it seem very much like Amazon and other studios financially involved with AI companies might be cooling on the idea of releasing projects critical of the technology’s creators. Now that Artificial has begun screening and people have a sense of how it takes Altman to task, it’s easy to see why Amazon didn’t want to have its name attached. More than anything else, that decision may be what convinces people to see Artificial in theaters when it releases widely on December 25th, and OpenAI’s impending IPO could make the movie’s messages about Altman feel that much more relevant.
