“The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” is as simple and as complex as its title.

On the one hand, you have “The AI Doc,” as in Artificial Intelligence documentary film. That’s rather straightforward.

On the other hand, you have “Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist.” That’s rather unpronounceable.

Director Daniel Roher, who’s on-camera for most of the film, directed the film with Charlie Tyrell.

Roher asks, “What is Artificial Intelligence?”

The simple becomes complicated.

Roher takes a trip down the rabbit hole, bringing the movie-goer with him in the fascinating, thought-provoking and conversation-inducing documentary film.

Roher won an Oscar, documentary feature, “Navalny” (2022), about the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his suspected poisoning.

Roher directed the documentary feature, “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson & The Band,” about the fellow native Canadian and the seminal Americana rock group.

Roher directed “Tuner,” his first narrative feature film, a Crime Thriller set to open May 29, starring Leo Woodall, Dustin Hoffman, Tovah Feldshuh and Jean Reno.

For “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist,” Roher interviewed more than 30 experts, observers and movers and shakers from the other side of the digital divide, including Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI; Daniela Amodei, President, Co-Founder, Anthropic; Tristan Harris, Co-Founder, Center for Humane Technology; Demis Hassabis, CEO, Co-Founder, Google DeepMind; Peter Lee, President, Microsoft Research, and Jason Matheny, President and CEO, RAND.

Two notable holdouts from the interviewees: Mark Zuckerberg (Meta, Facebook, Instagram) and Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, X).

What ensues is an “Alice in Wonderland” succession of real-life characters akin to the 1865 novel, each in their own way, a Mad Hatter replete with a Lewis Carroll-like vocabulary of tech-speak as confusing as it is bright and shiny.

“’Twas brillig” as “Jabberwocky” goes, also by Lewis Carroll, in his 1871 book, “Through the Looking-Glass.” By the time “The AI Doc” concludes, you may not know what to think. You will think the next time you Google and the AI Mode pops up.

“The AI Doc” posits dichotomy: a binary question: Will AI become our Overlord or our servant? Will AI become humanity’s savior or humanity’s doom? The worldwide web is symbolically The Tower of Babel (The Bible’s Genesis 11:1-9). It’s the Tower of Babble-On.

The film’s interviews, with each subject seated at a table with black backdrop and facing Roher, next to the camera, asking straight-forward questions, are interspersed with a hodgepodge of clever flip-book animation chats between Roher and his wife, Caroline Lindy; cutout animation; stop-motion animation; television news excerpts, and floating blocks reminiscent of a character from “A Minecraft Movie” (2025).

A key component of the film is the perspective of Daniel Roher, who is becoming a first-time dad and wonders what kind of world awaits their son.

The film introduces, or at least introduced to me, the term, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which are AI systems that match or surpass human intelligence. This is the film’s most-debated and divisive topic.

In addition to the introduction of a new word, that of Apocaloptimist, to the lexicon, “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” challenges us to choose a path. Will the road not taken make all the difference, to paraphrase Robert Frost’s poem, ”The Road Not Taken” (1916), in our lives and earth’s civilization?

Or, as Michael “Movie Maven” Gontkosky of Whitehall said over tea and cappuccino at the Barnes & Noble Cafe after seeing “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist”: “The future lies in AI.”

To which I replied, “Will it be lies or the truth?”

Seeing “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” is one way to find out. Don’t miss it.

“The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist,” MPA Rated PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned: Content inappropriate for children under 13.) for language.; Genre: Documentary; Run time 1 hour; 43 minutes. Distributed by Focus Features.

Credit Readers Anonymous: At the end credits of “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” is the statement that, in effect, warns: “No part of this film can be used to train AI.” Among the songs on the soundtrack is “Harvest Moon,” written and performed by Canadian native Neil Young.

At The Movies: “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” was seen in the standard format at AMC Center Valley 16.

Theatrical Movies Domestic Weekend Box Office, April 17-19: “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” made it a three-peat, No. 1 three weeks in a row with a still strong $35 million in 4,170 theaters, $355.2 million, three weeks.

2. “Project Hail Mary” stayed in place with an impressive $20.4 million in 3,820 theaters, $285 million, five weeks. 3. “Lee Cronin’s the Mummy,” starring Jack Reynor, Natalie Grace and Laia Costa in the Horror film, $13.5 million in 3,304 theaters, opening. 4. “The Drama” dropped one place, $4.8 million in 2,629 theaters, $39.6 million, three weeks. 5. “You, Me & Tuscany” dropped one place, $3.8 million in 3,157 theaters, $14.3 million, two weeks. 6. “Hoppers” dropped one place, $2.9 million in 2,475 theaters, $161.1 million, seven weeks. 7. “Normal,” starring Bob Odenkirk, Lena Headey and Henry Winkler in the Crime Thriller, $2.6 million in 2,060 theaters, opening. 8. “BTS World Tour ‘ARIRANG’ in JAPAN: Live Viewing,” broadcast of April 18 Tokyo concert, $1.8 million in 1,189 theaters, opening. 9. “Busboys,” starring David Spade and Theo Von in the Comedy, $1.6 million in 800 theaters, opening. 10. “Bhooth Bangla,” an Indian Hindi-language Comedy Horror film, $950,000 in 500 theaters, opening.

Movie box office information from Box Office Mojo as of April 19 may be subject to change.

Unreel, April 24:

“Michael,” MPA rated PG-13; 2 hours, 7 minutes. Antoine Fuqua directs Jaafar Jackson (Michael Jackson’s nephew), Juliano Valdi, Colman Domingo, Nia Long and Miles Teller in the Music, Docudrama about Michael Jackson.

“I Swear,” No MPA rating; 2 hours. Kirk Jones directs Robert Aramayo, Maxine Peake and Somerled Campbell in the Docudrama Biography about John Davidson, who has Tourette’s syndrome.

“Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” MPA rated G; 1 hour, 30 minutes. Werner Herzog directs the Documentary film about the paintings of the Chauvet caves in Southern France.

Movie opening date information from Internet Movie Database as of April 19 may be subject to change.

Three Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes