Parents' Guide to The Thinking Game

This documentary is solid, but its intent is sometimes unclear. Can a documentary about artificial intelligence celebrate human curiosity without turning into an ad for the company behind it? The Thinking Game keeps circling that question and the answer changes from scene to scene. The film is at its clearest when it explains the difference between artificial intelligence and artificial general intelligence, which could appeal to kids who are already curious about science and how the mind works. It also has a genuinely compelling subject in Demis Hassabis, whose path from young chess champion to Nobel Prize–winning scientist has the shape of a terrific biopic, the kind that gets an up-and-coming actor an Oscar.

The issue is that filmmaker Greg Kohs keeps getting pulled back toward the company story. Hassabis is interesting enough on his own, especially as the son of immigrants who learned to think through games, memory, and ambition, but the movie often seems more dazzled by Google DeepMind and its landmark projects than by the person at the center. It celebrates the promise of AI with very little room for doubt, which makes the subject feel strangely safe when it should feel more urgent. The result sometimes plays like something projected in a corporate lobby: handsome, awestruck, and a little too confident that wonder is enough. There's still value here for viewers interested in science and invention, but the movie never quite decides whether it wants to be an inspiring portrait or a showcase for a powerful company.