Faith & Film - "The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist"

As part of this year’s Berkeley Palmer Lecture, we offer this special Faith & Film screening around the theme of artiificial intelligence. Following the movie and a dinner break, Dr. Hanna Reichel will speak on the dilemma of AI omniscience through the lens of the church’s long thinking about God and omniscience. Find out more about Seeing Like a God? Faith, Tech, and Power in Such a Time as This, the 2026 Berkeley Palmer Lecture, here. Stay for a fascinating evening!

Movie Description 

As artificial intelligence races ahead faster than most of us can process, filmmaker Daniel Roher (director of Navalny) turns his camera on the people building it — and on himself, an expectant father wrestling with what kind of world he's bringing a child into. Sitting down with the leading minds behind today's AI (including Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis), Roher confronts both the peril (extermination of all humanity) and the promise (we’ll never have to work again) of the technology reshaping our future. The result is a deeply personal, unflinching look at fear and hope in the age of AI — and an invitation to consider what wisdom, discernment, and faith have to offer as we navigate it together.

Join us for a screening of this timely documentary, followed by conversation on what it means to hold both hope and caution as we face a rapidly changing world.

Trailer

PG-13, 2026, Documentary, 104 minutes, directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell

Free Admission. Please register. Co-sponsored by New College Berkeley and First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley.

About the Faith & Film series

In this series we will examine the potent and relevant medium of film in exploring themes of love, faith, conscience, evil, death, reception, grace, morality, identity, and our yearning for the sacred. Each month we will view a different film––each unique, compelling, and demanding––reflecting our current times. Each film is curated by those who love this artistic medium and will host a conversation following our viewing. Co-sponsored by First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and New College Berkeley.

Event details

FPCB is located at 2407 Dana Street, Berkeley. Geneva Hall, Room G202. There is free parking with registration in the FPCB parking garage on Channing Way.