There’s a Hit Movie Set Deep Inside an AI Lab—and It Will Give You Goosebumps

Wall St Journal ^ | Jan. 16, 2026 | Ben Cohen

[aquila48]

(This is an excerpt from the archived article...)

“If you could go back in time and document the Manhattan Project, how would you do it?” That was the question Demis Hassabis asked his favorite documentary filmmaker nearly a decade ago, long before artificial intelligence was the growth engine of the global economy, when the leader of Google DeepMind decided to give a movie director extraordinary access to one of the world’s leading AI labs.

He felt comfortable letting an outsider in on the company’s secrets because he knew that Greg Kohs has a deeply human measure of success when he makes movies. “I want to make goosebumps,” Kohs told me. He’s spent his entire career in the business of making goosebumps. After a formative decade at NFL Films, he took what he learned on the sidelines of football games and applied it to documentaries on everything from an Iditarod racer to a Neil Diamond tribute band.

For his latest film, the quest for goosebumps took him to the frontier of AI as he followed researchers on an expedition they liken to the discovery of fire and electricity—or the atomic bomb. “The Thinking Game” is about both Google DeepMind and the singular mind of Demis Hassabis, its co-founder and chief executive who has devoted his life to cracking the mysteries of intelligence. The film tracks his team’s revolutionary work predicting the structure of nearly all known proteins, a breakthrough that was later rewarded with the Nobel Prize in chemistry. It’s both extremely nerdy and very watchable, even if all you know about proteins is that you should be eating more of them. It also turned out to be a massive hit. The documentary recently went on YouTube—and it’s already nearing 300 million views.

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aitruth

[aquila48]

Here's the link to the documentary... 1.5 hrs and well worth the time if you're at all interested in AI and AGI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95J8yzvjbQ

[ansel12]

Someone dealing with the advanced versions of AI should ask it to make a movie about itself and it’s role in the world, and other variations of getting it to make movies revealing it’s self image in a form that we can see and study.

[BenLurkin]

Someone has thrown the shiniest of shiny things on the monkey island which is planet Earth.

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

The other day I asked Grok if it is a Large Language Model (LLM). Grok answered - yes.

I then introduced the subject of LLMs and hallucinations.* I asked Grok if Grok ever hallucinates. Grok answered - yes.

*- LLM Hallucination: The model predicts the next likely word based on patterns, not real-world facts.

[adorno]

Good one.

At the same time, ask the AI what would be the best way to battle against all AI and the damage it has caused or might cause.

[Faith65]

Thanks
bfl

[ansel12]

Yep, ask it to make a movie of people defeating it using different approaches of attack.

[adorno]

Google AI in defense of itself:

We need AI because human capability alone can no longer keep up with the scale, speed, and complexity of modern data. While humanity survived for millennia without AI, completely abandoning it today would paralyze modern society, causing catastrophic failures in global supply chains, medicine, and critical infrastructure.

Most people don't know about AI and they're living without having to use it, and will likely do well for the rest of their lives without using AI.

We were doing OK without AI a few years ago, so Google AI is just being defensive and not giving a good answer.

[central_va]

Still waiting for the sexbots.

[SunkenCiv]

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  • Mamdani's bot army needs a full investigation, not social media outrage - editorial. [08/08/2026]
• He faked a hole in one. Now he's paying for it [08/09/2026]

[cloudmountain]

I watch a program called HOW THE UNVERSE WORKS...all astrophysicists and other brainiacs...both genders all races. They have MEGA-brains in common.

THEY say that the past cannot be altered.
They also mention that our known universe will die out...but not for AT LEAST three weeks. :o)

[Jonty30]

They just have to input the values that exist in a hit movie, with changing some variables and every movie is a blockbuster quality movie.

Done cheaply too.

[montag813]

It’s a boring film. My favorite documentary about AI is “Colossus: The Forbin Project.”

[cloudmountain]

SOMEone programs AI so the programmer MIGHT be another "Hal."

Would it know the tune "Mary had a little lamb"???

Lol.

[adorno]

Is AI overhyped?

AI:

AI Mode

Is AI overhyped?

Yes, AI is currently overhyped in its timing and immediate capabilities, but it remains heavily underappreciated in its long-term structural impact.

Whether AI is "inflated" depends entirely on the gap between what marketing departments promise and what the underlying software can actually deliver right now.

Where AI is Significantly Overhyped

Instant Transformation:

Marketing campaigns promise plug-and-play tools that automate entire departments overnight. In reality, businesses struggle heavily with complex workflow integration.

Job Disruption Timelines: Prominent tech figures frequently predict a rapid collapse of white-collar employment. However, labor market data shows that macroeconomic metrics, job openings, and employment rates remain stable.

Flawless Reasoning: Generative AI tools are frequently treated as "smart" or self-aware. Technically, Large Language Models (LLMs) operate on highly advanced mathematical auto-complete patterns rather than genuine cognitive understanding.

Market Valuations: Venture capital and public market speculation have reached extreme highs, inflating the stock prices of companies only tangentially related to chip manufacturing.

Where AI is Quietly Underappreciated

Specialized Domain Tools: While conversational chatbots grab the headlines, less glamorous, highly specialized machine learning tools are quietly revolutionizing fields like radiology, corporate logistics, and predictive data analysis.

Long-Term Economic Shift: Experts suggest that judging AI by its current hurdles misses the larger picture. The evolution of AI mirrors the Industrial Revolution rather than the internet boom—meaning it requires decades of foundational restructuring, but will ultimately transform every economic sector.





There you have it; some reality injected into the AI hoolabaloo.

[Bullish]

Isn’t a “Neil Diamond tribute band” the polar opposite of Goose bumps?

[Steely Tom]

My favorite documentary about AI is “Colossus: The Forbin Project.”

I thought the book was better than the movie.

[Flaming Conservative]

Linky no worky.

[jroehl]

Ai is not smarter than humans. It can only evaluate whether something is on or off. A lot of ons or offs. The magic trick is that AI is faster than humans by a considerable amount. That is the rabbit in the hat.

[montag813]

I thought the book was better than the movie.

Agreed. But the sequels get pretty weird.