Sundance Film Review: ‘Ghost in the Machine’ should be mandatory viewing

I’ll start this review by giving the disclaimer I hate artificial intelligence. I’m sorry to say this so absolutely, and I know many might already be deterred because of that statement — but hear me out. Before attending the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, I have come to understand my hatred toward AI — and largely, the institution behind it — because of the effects on the environment, the lack of critical thinking and creativity its usage promotes among humans and its literal stealing of information and writing techniques from millions of authors. I get it — it helps you create a study guide. But I have to ask, at what cost?

I apologize for taking the opportunity to get on this soapbox, but I do think many people don’t understand the drastic effects using AI at such a level is already having on society. It’s not just that people are losing jobs, although that’s a very real fear as well, but our shared morals as a society are shifting, and I would argue, waning. We don’t care about plagiarism anymore. We don’t care about originality or creativity. We care about automation, about standardizing things, about getting things done as “efficiently” as possible while compromising humans, our integrity and our beliefs as a result. 

Now, this is all a generalization, and it’s just my opinion. I’m not trying to seem holier-than-thou or come across as though I believe myself to be morally superior. I don’t, but I am extremely interested in the subject of AI and what it’s doing to our society. So, naturally, when choosing a documentary to watch at Sundance, I chose Valerie Veatch’s “Ghost in the Machine.”

First of all, it’s undoubtedly impressive this feature-length documentary was written, directed and produced by Veatch. Just one person behind it didn’t, by any means, diminish the quality. The film combines historical and current video clips with interviews Veatch conducted with experts in the fields of AI, technology, history, philosophy and psychology, threading together a comprehensive study of how AI as we know it today came about. 

Here’s why I think “Ghost in the Machine” should be mandatory viewing: AI, at least many of the models we have and use, is inherently racist. Chatbots learn from humanity and reflect the data imputed. Think about Tay, the chatbot that took to Twitter in 2016 and went from saying things like “I love humans” to literally supporting what was done in the Holocaust. This happened over the course of one day. 

Most people don’t know about the history of AI or the science behind it, but there are tons of studies done that show evidence of discriminatory training, and the outputs depict clear racial bias in many cases. This isn’t just research shown in “Ghost in the Machine,” although every claim in the film is backed up by scientific evidence and expert input. However, there is extensive research done on this subject outside of the two-hour film, and if racism isn’t enough reason to make people question their everyday use of AI, I think we need to reevaluate our priorities. 

“Ghost in the Machine” did use AI-clips itself. The film constantly had a marker in the top right corner reading “AI” or “Not AI” to be completely clear about how AI was implemented in the film. I don’t think there is an ethical way of using AI, so I’m not necessarily condoning the film’s use of it, but it was often to show chatbots like Tay as evidence for the documentary’s claims. 

Again, I went into this film already believing the implications of AI for society are entirely negative, so I understand this might appear to be confirmation bias. A lot of people who use AI, I know, want to do so as ethically as possible, disclosing what used the generative model and running it locally to mitigate the environmental effects. I’ve heard the same argument time and time again: AI is part of the job market, whether we like it or not, so we have to learn how to use it. 

“Ghost in the Machine” had probably 20 people leave the theater during the screening I attended. I think the conversation makes people uncomfortable — it definitely makes me uncomfortable because I don’t like to think about how impossible it is to revert to a pre-AI society. But the documentary does raise an important question: In this new age of the world, what will humans become?

My own question is, then: Just because we think we have to use AI to get ahead or even keep up, does that mean we should? How much more will it take to get us to realize that life is about more than increasing efficiency and stopping at nothing to create a “perfect” society?