Google and the World Brain is a 2013 documentary movie about the Google Books Library Project directed by Ben Lewis, produced by BBC, Polar Star Films, and Arte. The main focus of the plot is on the copyright controversy caused by the project that resulted in the Google Book Search Settlement Agreement from Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc. in 2013. It features interviews with many figures concerned, including Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig and then-senior Vice President of Google Amit Singhal. The use of World Brain in the title is taken from the H. G. Wells' collection of essays called World Brain.
The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Reception
In a positive review in The Hollywood Reporter stated that the documentary offered "convincing reasons to pay more attention to Google's utopian schemes." And the film raised a bigger question about artificial intelligence, "the more putting centuries' worth of books online becomes a project to create a near-omniscient artificial being," and if such a thing became a possibility could a single company or government be trusted to hold the reins.