THE AI DOC: The Movie Equivalent of Doomscrolling

THE AI DOC: OR HOW I BECAME AN APOCALOPTIMIST (Blu-ray)

2026 / 104 min

Universal

Available at MovieZyng

Review by Princess Pepper🙀

For me personally, AI began rearing its ugly head during my final years as a middle school teacher. Some students who’d previously demonstrated almost no ability (or desire) to put together a single grammatically correct sentence were suddenly turning in essays that displayed a level of “thinking” and vocabulary well beyond their grade level. Worse yet, those who bothered to proofread whatever ChatGPT belched out for them freely admitted they had no idea what certain words and passages even meant. But they didn’t consider it cheating because, to them, chatbots were simply another writing tool like spell-checkers. 

That, among other things, was a sure sign it was time to retire. This tired old teacher (who still considers writing to be an essential skill) did not want to be around to experience AI’s growing impact on the classroom. But damn, if AI didn’t soon become unavoidable, turning social media into a junkyard and embraced by countless boobs who don’t know (or care) if what they see, read or hear is real or the product of a data center. 

That being said, I found The AI Doc to be a depressing experience, a film I regret having seen because it alarmingly lays out just how far-reaching this capitalism-driven technology has insinuated itself into nearly every aspect of culture, politics, finance, business and the economy (to say nothing of its immediate negative impact on the environment itself). Not only that, AI is becoming exponentially smarter and more powerful every day. Even its own creators (some interviewed here) admit they aren’t fully certain how it works and what it’ll eventually be capable of…for better or worse.

"I just wanted to reassure you that, even though you're now obsolete, I'll be fine."

To be honest, I would have preferred to keep my head buried in the sand, kind of like some of those same creators who repeatedly gush over the wonders of AI and how it’ll turn the world into a work-free utopia, while completely ignoring that it’s already eliminated jobs by the millions and consumes an ungodly amount of natural resources to function. It’s like listening to a tag-team of Mayor Vaughns. But hey, who needs a job or drinkable water when you can make videos of a high-diving horse?

The most alarming aspect of the film is that directors Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell make it abundantly (and repeatedly) clear that we have no say in the matter. At this point, AI is a Pandora’s box that cannot be closed. Roher presents himself as an artist with growing anxiety over AI’s increasing omnipresence, interviewing various experts for assurance that there’s nothing to be afraid of. Such assurance isn’t forthcoming, though. On the extreme end of the spectrum, some interviewees take the Chicken Little approach by suggesting AI will be capable of killing people through manipulation. While I’m not quite ready to follow them down that particular rabbit hole, these claims certainly exacerbate the notion that nothing good can stem from AI continuing to grow without being regulated. Unfortunately, not even those who declare AI to be the greatest thing since the industrial revolution have any idea how to do that.

The AI Doc ends with a call to action, but even then, we don’t walk away very optimistic that anything will change, not with financial gain being the driving force behind its use. In fact, what I mostly felt afterwards was resentment that AI is essentially inescapable. While the film itself is admittedly fascinating, maybe even Oscar worthy, watching it is kind of like doomscrolling without a computer mouse.