‘Artificial’ Star Andrew Garfield Recalls Believing OpenAI’s Sam Altman Was ‘Genuinely Great’ and Could Be ‘My Future Best Friend’

Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of Sam Altman in “Artificial” is less than flattering, but there was a time when the actor deeply admired the OpenAI co-founder and CEO.

“The first time I saw Sam, he was testifying in front of Congress and he was saying incredibly righteous stuff,” Garfield said Monday night during a Q&A following an AMPAS screening of the film at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles. “He was talking about transparency; he was talking about the risks. He was very, very casually saying, ‘No, I don’t have any equity in OpenAI. I’m just doing this because I love the technology and I’m passionate and I actually care about human beings.’”

OpenAI was launched as a nonprofit before launching the ChatGPT app. The

Luca Guadagnino-directed “Artificial” chronicles the founding of OpenAI and the firing and quick rehiring of Altman.

“I thought it was also just incredibly courageous for an out gay tech genius to be sat in front of Republican congressmen who probably don’t believe in his right to exist,” Garfield said. “So all of these things were adding up for me, and I was in such deep admiration of him. I was like, ‘Oh, we need more of these.’ and then he was meditating with Jack Kornfield, who’s this incredible Buddhist teacher. I’m like, ‘This guy might be like my future best friend.’ I was like, ‘He’s genuinely great and he seems to really have his values and priorities in the right place.’”