A zone of a thousand fantasies located south of San Francisco Bay, Silicon Valley remains one of the most influential innovation hubs in the world, where the headquarters of Google, Apple, Netflix and Facebook intersect, as do thousands of young start-ups. While this jungle has already been the subject of numerous productions, both fiction (The Social Network in cinema, Silicon Valley or Devs on the small screen) and documentaries, it is another perspective that the new Arte France series, Silicon Fucking Valley, wishes to offer, by giving the floor directly to Luc Julia.
From the beginnings of computing to the domination of Gafam
Settled in the region for three decades, this Toulouse engineer was the co-creator of the Siri voice assistant, having held important positions at Apple, Samsung and more recently at Renault where he has headed the R&D department since 2021. Having always wanted to keep his freedom of speech, not signing any confidentiality clause from one company to another, he takes us to the heart of Silicon Valley in 6 episodes, starting with the birth of computing then evoking the rise of Gafam and AI as well as the power taken by "venture capitalists", these investors capable of spending billions.
Six short episodes to discover in streaming
Along this unfiltered stroll, Luc Julia gives the floor to many players in this Silicon Valley: Jean-Louis Gassée, the former boss of Apple France, Adam Cheyer, with whom he co-created Siri, Meredith Whittaker, former Google employee who is fighting against the monopoly of Gafam, and many others. Directed by Pierre Schneidermann and Baptiste Giudicelli, this short documentary series is co-produced with Konbini. It offers 6 episodes of 12 minutes, to be discovered directly on the Arte.tv website or on Youtube.
