New play takes on OpenAI drama and AI’s existential questions

Revolutionize humanity or destroy it? Playwright Matthew Gasda’s characters, inspired by OpenAI and its famous ChatGPT, grapple with existential questions about the direction of artificial intelligence.

“Doomers,” which opens in New York from Friday and will play in several venues, is inspired by the dramatic firing of Sam Altman in November 2023 from OpenAI, the AI research company he co-founded eight years earlier.

Out of the blue, the board of directors sacked the young executive over his lack of transparency and his headstrong desire to push out new products at breakneck speed, even if this meant relegating any safety concerns to the background.

After a few days of crisis, marked by intense pressure from the group’s shareholders, including Microsoft, Altman was reinstated and almost the entire board was replaced.

“My dramatic instincts kicked in” when I first heard about the story, recalled Gasda, an author whose several plays have been noticed on the alternative New York theater scene.

“At first I purely thought it was a good story, but then I started to research and meet people in the business, and I understood that there are people who really feel like the fate of the world is in their hands,” he said.

Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, AI has been a regular presence in contemporary theater, often embodied by some kind of technological creature, human-like robot or otherwise.

Last year, “McNeal,” starring Oscar-winning actor Robert Downey Jr, was hailed for its questioning of the use of AI in the creative process.

But “Doomers” goes further, seizing a crucial, high-profile moment in the recent history of AI to turn it into a reflection on its future and on the collision between money, technology, power and building a perfect world.

In the first act, Seth, a character portraying Sam Altman, freshly fired, asserts his vision of AI’s inescapable march to several executives, mocking their unease.

The second part features board members tormented by the consequences of their decision to dismiss Seth.

In both episodes, the play, which will be performed in OpenAI’s hometown San Francisco in March, offers no way out, with the characters ultimately not taking a stand on the hard questions.

“That’s very intentional,” said Gasda.

“The only resolution… is that there’s no rational way of really grappling with the consequences of this. No one breaks through the doors and solves the problem for them.”

The playwright held several readings with AI professionals to ensure the accuracy of dialogues and situations.

He said that his plays often attract the tech community, and expects them to make up a big part of the audience for “Doomers.”

“I’m trying to speak to both audiences,” connoisseurs and laymen alike. “I want people who don’t think about it to start thinking about it,” said Gasda.

© 2025 AFP