Stream with KPBS+ / Premieres Monday, Sept. 14, 2026 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV
The provocative documentary, “Ghost in the Machine,” directed by Valerie Veatch (“Me @ The Zoo,” “Love Child”), premieres on PBS’s INDEPENDENT LENS.
The documentary investigates the forces that shaped AI technology before it entered daily lives, as well as those driving the global AI boom. While uncovering the origins of the technology, the film reveals its connection to global power structures.
“Ghost in the Machine” is an eye-opening 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 power structures long before it entered everyday life.
Challenging the myth of AI as inevitable or objective, the film traces how narratives of progress and efficiency have obscured deeper political and cultural agendas, revealing the ideological foundations beneath 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 do they encode?
- And who ultimately benefits?
Employing a bold yet accessible cinematic approach, Veatch delivers a work that is as unsettling as it is illuminating, offering audiences a visceral understanding of a technology that now touches nearly every aspect of modern life.
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Filmmaker Quote: “‘Ghost in the Machine’ helps us think about AI in a different way. It's a wake up call and searing analysis of power, technology and capitalism,” said Lois Vossen, a founding executive producer of INDEPENDENT LENS. “It connects the dots between spin, what corporations and government are feeding us about AI, and a new world order, emerging in the US and around the world, that affects nearly every aspect of our lives.”
Credits: Valerie Veatch, Director/Producer.
