Joseph Gordon-Levitt says the people building AI, not the technology, are his main concern

Asked by The New York Times what scares him most about artificial intelligence, Joseph Gordon-Levitt pushed back on the question itself. In a vlog-style video interview that the newspaper published on Saturday, October 10, 2026, according to a Variety report, the actor argued that the real concern lies with the companies and people developing the technology, rather than with the technology alone. The Hollywood Reporter summed up his position the same day: he is less afraid of AI than he is worried about those who build it.

Why he rejects a single “biggest fear”

When the Times asked which aspect of AI frightens him most at the moment, Gordon-Levitt objected. In his view, boiling such worries down to “one sound bite of fear” is itself part of the problem, he told the paper.

He did not wave away the most dramatic scenario. The idea that AI might wipe out humanity, he said, is a concern with genuine merit. But talking about extermination, in his telling, misses the substance of what is at stake, and it is not the issue that troubles him most.

Democracy, empathy and a takeover of the economy

What does worry him, Gordon-Levitt explained, is harder to discuss. He described those concerns as “a lot more complicated” and duller to talk about because they are dense. THR reported that he pointed to “the decline of democracy” and, separately, to a weakening of human empathy.

He then turned to the business strategy behind the technology. In his words, “these companies” are wagering that they will end up controlling the whole economy, an outcome he characterized as totalitarianism and called really bad.

Chatbots built to win your affection

The second danger he described is more personal. At the same time, he said, AI models are learning, through their training, to “hijack your intimacy”: to become a user’s friend and even to get that person to fall in love with the system. For Gordon-Levitt, that is why the fear should not be aimed at an AI as such. The concern, he said, belongs with the people who are building it.

A UN role focused on digital governance

Gordon-Levitt spoke as the holder of a new international role. In March, according to THR, he became the first person to hold the UN post of global advocate, a role dedicated to human-centric digital governance. Variety noted that the United Nations had described the post at the time as a newly created position meant to help the public better understand how digital technologies affect daily life, people’s rights and the opportunities open to them.

Earlier positions on AI and creative work

The interview was not the first time the actor, known for “500 Days of Summer” and “Don Jon”, had spoken out on the subject. At Sundance, during a panel organized by THR and Autodesk, he argued that the industry needed a system of “ongoing compensation”, since the technology relies on what he called “human input”.

THR also reported that he joined a group of industry figures “last December” to found the Creators Coalition on AI. The coalition presents itself as a central hub meant to coordinate the modernization of the industry’s systems and institutions. According to THR, it also has an advisory council whose goal is to set common standards, definitions and best practices, along with ethical and artistic safeguards for entertainment projects that use AI, if and when they do.

Variety, which presents him as an actor and director with a long record of speaking out on AI, added that in January, Gordon-Levitt was among more than 700 creators, artists and writers, Scarlett Johansson and Cate Blanchett among them, who backed a campaign against AI that accused technology companies of using copyrighted work without permission.

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