Ghost in the Machine Challenges Idea of Neutral AI

Artificial intelligence is sold as unbiased and objective. That sales pitch is wrong, director Valerie Veatch argues in Ghost in the Machine. She set out the case alongside researchers Dr. Emily Bender and Dr. Alex Hanna in a post-screening conversation staged for Deadline's For the Love of Docs virtual series, according to Deadline.

The documentary, directed by Veatch, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2026 in Park City, Utah. Deadline's preview of the Sundance documentary slate described its premise as the untold origins of artificial intelligence lying not in machines but in power, per Deadline. That idea — power, not machinery — runs through the film.

In the latest discussion, Veatch named OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI as companies that present AI as a neutral system. The film answers by tracing AI's intellectual roots to eugenics, the early-20th-century movement that tried to rank people by heredity and control reproduction. From there it draws a line to modern tools that sort, score and predict human behaviour.

Labour is central to that argument. The film highlights low-paid workers in African countries who label, sort and filter the material used to train AI models. It also points to the heavy demands for water and power from data centres, the large buildings packed with computers that run AI systems day and night.

Bender and Hanna joined Veatch to unpack how those human choices about data, design and funding shape results. PBS describes the wider project as an exploration of how the values, biases and power structures behind artificial intelligence are shaping the world, on its PBS page. The broadcaster lists Ghost in the Machine as Season 28, Episode 1 of Independent Lens, its long-running showcase for independent documentaries, and names Samuel Black as producer.

What makes this stand out is range. Many AI stories start with the chatbot. This one starts much earlier. It then links that history to pay slips and power bills, connecting abstract software to physical work and resources.

Deadline's For the Love of Docs series continued with weekly screenings, each followed by a conversation with the filmmaking team, through December 1, according to Deadline. The virtual format puts festival titles in front of viewers at home, with directors and guests on hand to explain their choices.