Dispatch
Documentary 'Ghost in the Machine' Traces AI Boosterism's Roots in Eugenicist Ideology
Director Valerie Veatch's documentary, premiering at SXSW 2026, began as an investigation into OpenAI's Sora and evolved into a broader critique connecting generative AI's 'human optimization' narratives to historical eugenicist thinking. The Verge interview covers how the film argues that AI maximalism frameworks — intelligence amplification, cognitive enhancement, obsolescence of unaugmented humans — echo ideological lineages that predate computing. Signals growing cultural and critical-theory pushback against AI boosterism beyond the typical regulatory critique.
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