Sometimes, when policymakers, activists, and interest groups are failing to move the needle, popular culture can create the kind of pressure that is necessary for political change.

This is certainly part of the hope behind the new documentary The AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist. The filmmakers have decided that the best way to reach broad audiences about the dangers posed by artificial intelligence is through movies. Though the film is a documentary, Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, has explained in interviews that a model for this project was, The Day After, a fictional film about nuclear war that aired on ABC in 1983. The movie, Harris said, was “an example of the power that a film can have to nudge the world in a different direction.”

Sometimes, when policymakers, activists, and interest groups are failing to move the needle, popular culture can create the kind of pressure that is necessary for political change.

This is certainly part of the hope behind the new documentary The AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist. The filmmakers have decided that the best way to reach broad audiences about the dangers posed by artificial intelligence is through movies. Though the film is a documentary, Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, has explained in interviews that a model for this project was, The Day After, a fictional film about nuclear war that aired on ABC in 1983. The movie, Harris said, was “an example of the power that a film can have to nudge the world in a different direction.”

Rather than focusing on the halls of Congress or the seminar rooms of Washington think tanks, Harris—who is interviewed in the film—understands that changing public opinion requires movies, television, social media clips, and other forms of cultural outreach. These are the spaces where it might still be possible to reach Americans.

The AI Doc, directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell, sounds the alarm on the dangers we all face. The point of the film is not to dismiss the immense benefits that AI is already bringing, but to force an important conversation—one that has recently rapidly intensified in U.S. politics as a result of citizen activism and industry figures going public with their concerns—about what could happen if its development remains unchecked. Last month, the film was screened for members of Congress and their staffs.

The strategy behind the documentary builds on important precedents. The Day After, along with a film about computers released that same year, offers evidence of how the arts, whether documentaries or fictional productions, can exert a powerful influence on the public and even on policymakers.

The early 1980s was a frightening time for many Americans. During his first term, President Ronald Reagan had ramped up defense spending as part of his promise to take a tougher stance against the Soviet Union, in contrast to previous presidents who, Reagan argued, had placed too much faith in detente and its arms control agreements. He insisted that peace could only be achieved through strength. The president used harsh rhetoric against the USSR, calling it “the focus of evil in the modern world” in a famous........

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