Joseph Gordon-Levitt says AI hijacks privacy and we should be afraid of the people who create AI

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who in March was named by the United Nations as the world’s leading advocate for human-centered digital governance, says that instead of being afraid of AI, “we should be concerned about the people building AI.”

In a new video interview with The New York Timesthe actor was asked his biggest current fear regarding technology. “I would object to that question simply because reducing those concerns to one sentence of fear — that’s one of the problems,” Gordon-Levitt responded.

“For me to say, Oh, I’m afraid that AI could exterminate all of humanity — that doesn’t really address the root of the concern. That concern is definitely valid. But that’s not the thing that really worries me,” he said, explaining that his concerns are “much more complicated and much more boring to talk about, because they’re much denser,” citing “the decline of democracy, the decline of human empathy” as a concern.

“These companies are betting on the idea that they’re going to take over the entire economy. That would be totalitarianism, and it would be really bad,” Gordon-Levitt added. “Simultaneously, these models are trained to hijack your intimacy, befriend you, and make you fall in love. We shouldn’t be afraid of an AI. We should be concerned about the people building the AI.”

THE Don Jon The star has already expressed her concerns about AI, during a panel organized by The Hollywood Reporter and Autodesk at Sundance that “we need to build a continuous compensation system” because technology depends on “human input.”

He also joined a group of industry insiders last December to form the Creators Coalition on AI, whose mission is to provide “a central coordinating hub for upgrading our industry’s systems and institutions.” The group additionally has an advisory board that seeks “to establish common standards, definitions and best practices as well as ethical and artistic protections if and when AI is used in entertainment projects.”