Director
Adam Bhala Lough
Executive Producers
Adam Bhala Lough, Elizabeth Weil, Mark Olsen, Marina Stadler, Dana J. Olkkonen, Scoop Wasserstein
Producers
Kevin Hart, Luke Kelly-Clyne, Bryan Smiley, Harold Berón III
Editor
Consulting Editor
Co-Editor
Assistant Editor
Cinematographer
Additional Cinematography
Music
Sound
Narration
Contact
Director Adam Bhala Lough sets out to understand the technology and people at the center of AI. His quest sends him on a path towards OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman. When he can’t sit down with Altman, Adam travels to India to create an AI version of him to interview instead. Sam Bot is a new kind of documentary subject and collaborator, who challenges Adam in surprising and hilarious ways. Together, Adam and Sam Bot explore what it means to be alive, create art, and understand each other in an increasingly artificial world. Hartbeat partners with Vox Media Studios and Lough for this documentary based on reporting from New York Magazine.
Adam Bhala Lough is a Punjabi-American director known for award-winning films on major platforms like HBO and Netflix. Nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Docu Series in 2024 for Telemarketers, his debut Bomb the System (2002) was an Independent Spirit Award nominee. His documentary The Upsetter (SXSW 2005) is in the Criterion Collection. An NYU film graduate, he passionately tells diverse human stories.