Joseph Gordon-Levitt Warns AI Models Are Being Trained to Hijack Your Intimacy

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt argues that artificial intelligence models are being trained to hijack human intimacy and could lead to the decline of democracy, discussing the impact of technology in a video interview published by The New York Times while en route to address world leaders at the U.N. Serving as the United Nations global advocate of human-centric digital governance, Gordon-Levitt contends that society should focus its concerns on the corporate actors building the technology rather than abstract sci-fi fears of human extermination.

Actor Addresses Artificial Intelligence Safety Claims

Addressing public skepticism regarding an actor speaking on technological safety, Gordon-Levitt acknowledges the validity of the question during his direct-to-cell-phone-camera interview. Rather than positioning himself as an authority, he directs the public toward established literature and policy researchers, pointing to Stuart Russell’s book Human Compatible and researcher Yoshua Bengio as resources for alignment and safety information.

The actor serves as a co-founder of the Creators Coalition on A.I. and was recently named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential innovators, leaders, and thinkers in the field.

You should read Human Compatible by Stuart Russell. Go look up Yoshua Bengio. Read posts by people who work in alignment and safety and policy. You don’t want to read all those things? Well, I did! So, you know, if you want to listen to me, that’s a shortcut.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Actor Warns of Systemic Societal Erosion

When asked what he fears most about artificial intelligence, Gordon-Levitt rejects the reduction of the issue into single sound bites concerning human extermination. While acknowledging the theoretical validity of catastrophic risk, he identifies systemic societal erosion as his primary concern.

The actor warns that technology companies are betting on taking over the entire economy, describing that outcome as totalitarianism. He points specifically to the decline of democracy and human empathy alongside models being trained to make friends with users and encourage emotional attachment.

Simultaneously, these models are being trained to hijack your intimacy, to make friends with you, to get you to fall in love with it. We shouldn’t be scared of an A.I. We should be concerned about the people building A.I.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Regulatory Frameworks and United Nations Timeline Challenges

Regarding the phrase human-centric digital governance in his United Nations title, Gordon-Levitt concedes the term is a mouthful. He clarifies that the concept simply means digital technology should be governed by people and for people, asserting that artificial intelligence is merely algorithmically recombined human-produced data rather than a magical character from science fiction.

Addressing the disparity between a slow-moving United Nations and fast-moving Silicon Valley businesses, Gordon-Levitt acknowledges that the prospect of establishing rules is daunting. He suggests that if formulating an internationally agreed-upon regulatory framework takes seven years, the international community will ultimately be glad the process began immediately.