Joseph Gordon-Levitt Says AI Builders, Not AI, Are the Real Concern

Joseph Gordon-Levitt told The New York Times that the greater concern is not AI itself but the people developing it. The actor, who serves as the U.N.'s first global advocate for human-centric digital governance, pointed to risks to democracy and empathy and warned that companies are training models to exploit intimacy. He has also pushed for ongoing compensation for creators whose work informs AI systems.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt became the U.N.’s inaugural global advocate for human-centered digital governance in March. In a New York Times video conversation, he resisted narrowing his concerns to a single fear, saying such framing misses deeper issues. He identified weakening democratic institutions and diminished empathy as more substantive worries, and cautioned that technology firms may seek economic dominance that resembles totalitarianism. He also said some systems are designed to simulate closeness and affection.

Previously, at a Sundance panel presented by The Hollywood Reporter and Autodesk, he advocated continuing payments to creators whose contributions train AI. Last December, he helped launch the Creators Coalition on AI, which aims to coordinate industry reform and develop standards, definitions, best practices, and ethical and artistic safeguards for entertainment uses.

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