Cinema / Film

Ghost in the Machine + Q&A

88 Lothian Road

Sat 22 Aug · 15:00

Valerie Veatch · 110m · Film

About this event

This event is in collaboration with Our AI Collective , and will be followed by an hour-long Q&A. Ghost in the Machine is a gripping and urgently relevant investigative documentary that exposes the buried history of artificial intelligence, not as a neutral system of algorithms, but as a technology shaped by racism, misogyny, eugenics, and entrenched structures of power long before it entered everyday life. Rejecting the notion of AI as inevitable or objective, the film traces how myths of progress and efficiency have obscured deeper political and cultural agendas, revealing the ideological foundations beneath the systems now reshaping modern society. Structured as an eight-chapter inquiry, the film blends historical excavation with contemporary analysis to confront essential questions: who built these systems, whose values they encode, and who they benefit. Directed by Valerie Veatch, whose Sundance-premiering films Me @ The Zoo (HBO) and Love Child (HBO) examined how emerging technologies transform identity, power, and culture, Ghost in the Machine employs a bold yet accessible cinematic approach that is as unsettling as it is illuminating, offering a visceral understanding of a technology that now touches nearly every aspect of modern life. This is not a film about machines. It is a film about power. Ghost in the Machine interrogates who builds AI, who benefits from it, and who bears the cost.