The untold origins of artificial intelligence lie not in machines but in power, revealing the fantasies behind the hype that got us here and where we go next.

Director Valerie Veatch returns to the Sundance Film Festival to navigate the torrential rapids of artificial intelligence with this mind-expanding investigative essay documentary that excavates the philosophical, cultural, and political forces driving the global AI boom.

Ghost in the Machine approaches ubiquitous questions like “What is AI?”, “Who is building it?”, and “What will humans become?” by exploring how emerging technologies have historically reshaped identity, culture, and global power, while also exposing the current fronts of human exploitation without which AI would not function.

Veatch interviews a wide variety of historians, philosophers, sociologists, journalists, and thinkers from around the world to lend fresh perspectives on what AI is, how it works, and how people can maintain a sense of agency in a threatening and overbearing tech-driven world. — SF

Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 29–February 1) and credentialed press and industry (January 28–February 1).