The movie “The Powers That Be”? Not only is Hollywood speculating on what would happen if technology got too powerful, but it’s here. For some of the world’s biggest tech giants, it’s putting some of the world’s most influential tech leaders at the heart of that story — and not all of the results are flattering.
From October 2026, a series of films featuring Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Sam Altman will bring increased worries regarding the future of human creativity, corporate power and artificial intelligence to movie theaters. Embracing the people behind technologies that are increasingly influencing daily lives, filmmakers are exploring everything from a new chapter in The Social Network saga to a drama about OpenAI’s leadership crisis.
Silicon Valley’s Biggest Names Are Becoming Hollywood’s New Villains
Technology entrepreneurs for years and years were depicted as being great visionaries who are disrupting the established industry and transforming the world. Now in Hollywood, the less comfortable question is being asked: what’s the impact of one small group of powerful executives on technologies that impact billions of people?
The Social Reckoning is one of the more notable exceptions, and is the sequel to The Social Network, which came out in 2010. In a reboot of Facebook’s controversies and the stresses over the company, Zuckerberg is played by Jeremy Strong. The movie moves the focus away from the film’s success at Facebook to the issue of corporate responsibility and the implications of its power.
The change is part of a wider cultural debate. In the digital era, investors’ eyes are trained on technology companies as they gain in prominence, not just their products, decisions, and business incentives, but also their responsibility for the outcomes of their products.
Sam Altman’s AI Story Arrives With Its Own Share of Drama
Artificial, a movie directed by Luca Guadagnino, portrays the struggle that’s happening inside OpenAI. Andrew Garfield stars as Altman, and Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, who was a co-founder of OpenAI and later turned against it.
The play is about the rough-and-tumble events of November 2023, when OpenAI’s board of directors fired Altman as CEO, and he returned days later after being “bullied out of the door” by the pressure. The episode revealed conflicts about leadership and governance, as well as over the direction of the company’s efforts in making more and more powerful AI systems.
Altman has already spoken out about the trailer for the film, telling CNBC that he was “disappointed” that it was so bad, but that he was “rooting for people to be creative. If there’s any lesson to take from his answer, it’s that tech leaders are in an unusual position today: They’re in a position to influence the technology, but they can’t necessarily predict how they’ll be interpreted in filmmaking.
Elon Musk’s Documentary Adds Another Layer to the Debate
Musk also has a major screen time in Musk, a 4-hour documentary helmed by Alex Gibney.
The documentary film is unlike the typical fictional thriller; it’s actually about the real billionaire and his life in public. CNN reported that Musk said the movie was a hit piece and questioned its integrity. He has also refused an interview, with his conflict with Gibney being a part of the film’s narrative.
The overall time frame is important. The proliferation of AI businesses vying to create more powerful systems, along with fears over automation, jobs, security and centralised corporate energy, persists.
There are reasons for the attention paid by Hollywood. The ability to create images, video, and other forms of art with AI may revolutionize the filmmaking process, cost control by studios, and artists’ livelihoods. This leaves them in a complex situation: The entertainment business is delivering stories about big tech firms, and at the same time, they are subject to disruption by their products.
The Real Question Goes Beyond Three Billionaires
It’s not that all concerns about AI are warranted by these movies, and dramatic portrayals of people are not necessarily balanced representations of the individuals. Movies condense events, stress conflict, and have a creative interpretation of real decisions.
The information about their arrival, however, is a sign of a larger change in the discussion of technology. Earlier, people were encouraged to see innovation as a sign of progress, but now people are asked to think about who is in control of that innovation, who gains from it, and who suffers the consequences when it goes wrong.
Ordinary folks have more pressing concerns than a Hollywood feud when it comes to those questions. They’re about the prospect of AI taking their jobs, their own data being used for AI, and whether companies with a lot of power will be held responsible for the systems they develop.
