Joseph Gordon-Levitt called out California Governor Gavin Newsom for being “too scared” to sign a bill that would have further regulated AI.
Gordon-Levitt has grown more outspoken against AI in the last month – particularly when it comes to chatbots targeting kids. The actor took to social media and slammed the governor for signing a bill designed to protect kids from “predatory AI companions.”
Per the actor, the bill is full of loopholes and legal language built for tech companies to get around. Newsom did, however, veto a bill Gordon-Levitt said could have made Big Tech alter their products “to be better for our kids.”
“While he signed this do-nothing bill, he vetoed a good bill that really would have held Big Tech’s feet to the fire and made them change their products to be better for our kids,” Gordon-Levitt said. “Mr. Newsom was too scared to sign it. What was he scared of, you ask? Well, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that just weeks before the deadline to sign or veto all these bills that could regulate AI, Big Tech: Google, Meta, OpenAI launched these huge Super PACs worth hundreds of millions of dollars aimed at attacking candidates who might regulate AI. I guess Mr. Newsom was scared that if those hundreds of millions of dollars were directed at attacking him it might hurt his chances at winning President in a few years when he runs.”
He added: “It’s sad because there is a lot to like about Governor Newsom. I think he’s been doing a good job at standing up to Donald Trump and the rise of authoritarianism in this country. But you know, in my opinion, the rise of authoritarianism here and all over the world originates in large part with these algorithms. These attention maximizing algorithms that drive the social media products and now the AI products that make so much money for these companies.”
Gordon-Levitt’s video comes shortly after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that ChatGPT will soon be able to incorporate erotica after the company implemented changes to better handle mental health issues.
“As part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults,” he said.
Gordon-Levitt’s voice in the conversation regarding AI regulation — especially when it came to chatbots targeting kids — began when he made a New York Times op-ed video calling out Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s chatbots.
He said that as the father of an 8-year-old, the idea that kids were having “synthetic intimacy” with chatbots made him “livid.” The actor called Zuckerberg out for choosing “lots and lots of money” over implementing safety regulations for minors’ interactions with his company’s AI tools.
“It’s hard to describe how angry this makes me,” Gordon-Levitt said in the video. “It’s not known how many kids have already been exposed to this kind of synthetic intimacy.”
