Artificial Is Shaping Up To Be The Social Network Sequel We Deserve
The future is inevitable.
We’re living in the age of the biopic. From historical biopics like Oppenheimer to musical ones like A Complete Unknown to fictional biopics like Marty Supreme, this is the time for character studies of complex heroes, be they real or imagined. But in recent years, a new kind of biopic has become popular: the tech biopic. Stories of innovators changing the world — for better or for worse — with their technological inventions.
There are plenty of entries in this genre like BlackBerry and Steve Jobs, and even more if you include TV series like The Dropout or WeCrashed. But they can all be traced back to one revolutionary movie: The Social Network, David Fincher’s unflinching portrait of Mark Zuckerberg’s journey in founding Facebook. The latest of these tech biopics is Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, following Sam Altman throughout the rise of OpenAI and ChatGPT. Neon has released the trailer for the film, opening in theaters on Christmas Day, and it looks like the true successor to The Social Network’s cultural clout. Check out the trailer below:
Artificial stars Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman as he grapples with just how much artificial intelligence will change the world. “Countries will fall. Industries are gonna collapse,” he says. “And we get to be the ones to shepherd people into this new world.” Famously, this movie was supposed to be released by Amazon MGM Studios, but the studio pulled out after making a deal with OpenAI itself.
Regardless of your thoughts on A.I., this is definitely a story worth telling, and with Guadagnino, the director of thought-provoking movies like Challengers and Suspiria, it’s sure to have an interesting message when the credits roll. But just from the surface level, this looks incredibly similar to The Social Network, and not just because it features Andrew Garfield (though that certainly helps).
Normally, this would be fine, but there’s an actual sequel to The Social Network releasing a few months before Artificial. The Social Reckoning, written and directed by The Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, follows Zuckerberg, now played by Jeremy Strong, during the 2021 Facebook leak.
Andrew Garfield plays Sam Altman in the upcoming movie Artificial.
It’s hard to judge a movie by its trailer, but this movie’s star-studded cast, rags-to-riches tale, and ripped-from-the-headlines subject this seems more similar to The Social Network than The Social Reckoning, which follows its hero at the top as he deals with a scandal. One may have Aaron Sorkin, but sometimes the sequel and the spiritual sequel are two different movies.
With these two movies, plus the Elon Musk documentary Musk and Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything, the back half of 2026 is packed full with divisive tech icons invading the silver screen. But if this is a four-horse race, then this just pulled ahead as a favorite.
