Earlier this year, the United Nations appointed Hollywood actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt as its first Global Advocate for Human-Centric Digital Governance. Sounds great, right? I mean, he’s always been fairly likeable onscreen and can sound just like a regular Joe. He’s even pretty good at lip synching.
But when it comes to AI, he’s hardly an impartial advocate for humans. His wife, Tasha McCauley, was the co-founder and CEO of a company called Fellow Robots, specialising in developing AI-powered humanoid robot workers; she was also a member of OpenAI’s board who helped orchestrate the failed coup to oust Sam Altman as OpenAI’s CEO in 2023.
As for Gordon-Levitt, it was also recently revealed that he attended Palantir cofounder/Paypal Mafia member/Antichrist obsessive Peter Thiel‘s Dialog conference, which the actor claims does not make him a Thiel ally, simply Thiel-curious.
It remains to be seen how Gordon-Levitt will contribute, if at all, to the global conversation surrounding the need for human-centered governance of AI companies; but it would probably be wise to take any of his public statements on the issue with a grain of salt at the very least.