Dueling documentaries illuminate the promise and perils of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence’s dystopian specter has spawned a pair of documentaries dissecting a technology that’s depicted as ravenous parasite devouring humanity’s knowledge, creativity and empathy. The films, “Deepfaking Sam Altman” and “The AI Doc,” examine the issue through different lenses while similarly illuminating why the technology evokes both existential fears and utopian visions about how it might change the world. The documentaries’ arrival coincides with an intensifying debate about whether AI will become a catalyst that helps enlighten and enrich people or a technological toxin that insidiously dulls human intelligence while wiping out millions of high-paying jobs that have traditionally required college educations.