Fear of China and the AI Arms-Race Playbook

Documentary filmmaker Adam Bhala Lough joins the Chuck ToddCast for a provocative, darkly funny, and unsettling conversation about AI, power, and the people building the future faster than anyone can regulate it. Lough unpacks the thinking behind his documentary Deepfaking Sam Altman, exploring why artificial intelligence inspires both awe and terror, how tech elites quietly prepare for social backlash, and why many of the skills we once told young people to master—like coding—may soon be obsolete. From Silicon Valley’s obsession with immortality and bunker-building to the fear that any job done on a computer could disappear within a few years, the discussion confronts what happens when innovation outruns accountability.

The episode also dives deep into Sam Altman’s mystique, Silicon Valley’s moral blind spots, and how fear—of China, regulation, or losing dominance—is used to shape public debate around AI. Lough explains how deepfakes are made, why AI-driven scams are about to explode, and what lawmakers fundamentally misunderstand about regulating rapidly evolving technology. Ultimately, this conversation argues that the antidote to AI anxiety isn’t panic or denial—but transparency, literacy, and a serious public reckoning with who controls the tools reshaping human society.

Timeline:

00:00 Adam Bhala Lough joins the Chuck ToddCast

02:30 Tech titans know the pitchforks are coming & are building bunkers

03:15 Did you create “Deepfaking Sam Altman” assuming the worst about AI?

05:00 The phrase Artificial Intelligence is great branding, but creates fear

06:15 How did you find funding for the documentary?

06:45 AI was one of the reasons the writer’s guild was protesting

07:30 Kids who grew up learning to code won’t have a job due to AI

08:15 Coding is now a useless skill when it was THE skill to have 10 years ago

10:15 Any job done on a computer could be gone within 3 years

10:45 Teaching critical thinking skills when a machine can do it for you?

13:00 Humans won’t be ok with robots replacing, but may not have a choice

13:30 If AI destroys humanity, it wouldn’t be deliberate

14:15 There’s a theory that AI would keep us around & find a use for us

15:00 Sam Altman has a giant collection of guns & weapons, like a prepper

15:45 Wealth creates a “prepper” mentality

17:00 There’s an obsession Silicon Valley with living forever

17:45 Was trying to interview Sam Altman always the premise of the doc?

18:45 Thought getting an interview with Sam Altman would be easy

19:15 Still haven’t heard from Altman in light of the documentary

20:45 What made you so threatening that Altman avoided you?

22:30 Other tech companies were more open to talking than OpenAI

23:15 Altman uses AI to read and summarize his emails, he doesn’t read them

24:00 Tech CEO’s tend to be antisocial, created platforms to compensate?

24:45 Many created products the world didn’t need just to get rich

26:00 Social media causes problems, but also have positives like Arab Spring

26:45 Totalitarian regimes found a way to weaponize social media

27:45 Chinese documentarian used AI to avoid government crackdown

29:15 Altman uses fear of China’s use of AI to avoid regulation & get investment

30:15 Sam Altman is a Marvel level super villain

30:45 Elon Musk is even more of a villain than Altman

31:15 Altman doesn’t have a personality, Elon has a crazy one

32:00 Google’s Gemini has caught up and surpassed ChatGPT

32:45 Altman could be a flash in the pan, or the next Steve Jobs

34:30 Steve Jobs and Sam Altman share a similar drive

35:45 Apple wouldn’t have been as successful under Wozniak, he’s too nice

37:00 You don’t have to be an asshole to be a successful tech CEO

38:30 Political leaders have given business leaders permission to be awful

39:00 What do you want people to take away from the documentary?

39:45 The best way to cure AI anxiety is to create a conversation about it

40:45 Concerned about legal exposure from the documentary?

41:15 The documentary shows how the deepfake was made

42:30 AI image & video generators should be forced to include a logo

43:15 What should politicians understand about AI regulation?

44:30 AI slop is getting harder than ever to identify as fake

46:15 AI will be an incredible tool for scamming people

47:00 People should have a safeword to avoid deepfake scams

49:15 AI will be very useful in creating archival footage

51:00 AI gets dystopian when you put it into weapons

52:30 What topics are you interested in covering next?

55:00 Terms & conditions that force arbitration is very coercive

57:15 Deepfaking Sam Altman took 18 months to create

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