The last few years has featured a lot of talk about the effect of Artificial Intelligence on filmmaking. Studio executives are especially eager since it means having to not pay creative people. The studios would control the output from the computer without sharing money with writers, writers, directors, actors, camera crews or craft service table personal. People in various fields have debated the potential impact in the technology. Well documentarians no longer have to talk in hypotheticals. The Climate According to AI Al Gore shows what you can do with an AI program when your subject refuses to cooperate with your project.
Director Joel Gilbert once worked for Al Gore when he was the U.S. Senator from Tennessee – before he became a Nobel Prize and his presentation An Inconvenient Truth won the Oscar for Best Documentary. The foundation of Gore’s investigation into climate change is the work of Harvard professor Roger Revelle. Gore took his course while he was a student at Harvard (and roommates with Oscar Winner Tommy Lee Jones). Gilbert has been looking into Revelle’s work and the course that Gore took at Harvard. Gilbert doesn’t quite see Revelle being the influence in Gore’s work that the former-Vice President declares. The director believes a bigger influence came from a book that was assigned when Gore was a student at the Divinity School at Vanderbilt. Gilbert attempts to use connection with his former employer, but receives no response from Al Gore. That’s when he gets an online video call from an Al Gore that’s in fact generated from an artificial intelligence program. We hear the A.I. version of Al Gore answering his Gilbert’s questions in ways that the real Al Gore would never declare. The computer-generated Al Gore willing to admit he was high most of the time, drifted his way through Harvard and lied about his climate change work. The documentary uses real video of Al Gore speaking over the year. It’s easy to think the A.I. Al Gore and Al Gore are the same.
Al Gore might be the prime person that AI could easily fake being. He already sounded like he was robotic when he talked in the ’90s. The real Al Gore has the ability to suck the enthusiasm out of the room with an opening line. I still remember how he once killed the fun when he was brought on stage at an MTV award show. The computer nails his tone and delivery. It’s rather frightening. You can overlook the entire climate change element and just get lost in the fear that future documentaries will be completely phony. Soon podcasters will have on famous guests that will admit to the most horrific crimes because they aren’t the person. The footage of fake Al Gore on the video call isn’t quite as sophisticated as the voice program. But it will only get better until you can’t trust anything you see and hear on TV, your laptop or cellphone. The Climate According to AI Al Gore is a frightening film although not in the way Joel Gilbert intends. Why debate the reality of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth when “Is this really Al Gore” is the fear of the near future. If you’re teaching a call on documentary filmmaking, you need to grab a copy of this DVD to experience what can be done now. Question your students about how they’d want to apply this technology to their film. You’ll be seeing AI Al Gore and others in clips on your social media saying outrageous things in the coming years. How will we know the truth anymore? The Climate According to AI Al Gore is a chilling peek into what will be happening in the near future.
The Video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The quality is good since Gilbert uses a lot of vintage footage on the screen. The Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. You will clearly hear the A.I. Al Gore and the real Al Gore.
No bonus features.
Highway 61 Entertainment presents The Climate According To AI Al Gore. Directed by Joel Gilbert. Starring Joel Gilbert and A.I. Al Gore. Running Time: 112. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: December 10, 2024.
