The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist
Focus Features · premiered at Sundance 2026.
Apocaloptimist = apocalypse + optimist — it holds both the dread and the hope at once, and refuses to pick a tidy side.
Directed by Daniel Roher & Charlie Tyrell.
- Roher — Academy Award winner (Navalny).
- Tyrell — handmade, stop-motion documentaries.
- Produced by the team behind Everything Everywhere All at Once — Daniel Kwan & Jonathan Wang (7 Oscars, incl. Best Picture).
Both directors became first-time fathers while making it.
Their babies were born a week apart.
A film about AI, but really about my family. — Daniel Roher
The real question underneath: what world are we handing our kids?
The people building this technology.
- Sam Altman — OpenAI
- Dario Amodei — Anthropic
- Demis Hassabis — Google DeepMind
- — alongside critics like the Center for Humane Technology.
(Musk and Zuckerberg were asked, and declined.)
It rejects the easy question — “is AI good or bad?” It's both.
It points at the real problem: the race to deploy it as fast as possible.
It doesn't tell you what to think — it shows you how. That's exactly what we do in this room.
The Stakes
How is AI showing up in your life and community right now?
In your phone, your feed, your schoolwork?
Exciting, unsettling, or somewhere you didn't expect?
Is there something you care about that you worry AI is changing?
A job, a hobby, a relationship, an art form?
Changing it for better, worse, or just… different?
We watch — The AI Doc, Segment 1 of 4.
What stuck with you from the film?
A moment that surprised you, scared you, or gave you hope?
Something you can't stop thinking about?
Now that we've watched — how much had you actually thought about AI in your own life, not just the headlines?
Daily? Never? Only when a teacher brings it up?
Did the film change that?
The film argues AI will touch every part of life. Does that feel true to you — why or why not?
Name one part of life you think it won't touch.
Is “every part of life” hype, or real?
We go deeper — into who's actually steering all this.
Discussion questions adapted from the Center for Humane Technology, The AI Doc Discussion Guide.