Joseph Gordon-Levitt Warns AI Is Being Trained to 'Hijack Your Intimacy'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has warned that AI systems are being trained to "hijack your intimacy, to make friends with you, to get you to fall in love with it." The actor, now the United Nations' global advocate of human-centric digital governance, made the remarks in a vlog-style video interview with The New York Times published on Saturday.

Gordon-Levitt's message is blunt: "We shouldn't be scared of an A.I. We should be concerned about the people building A.I."

It's a notable line from a notable messenger. In March, the UN appointed him to a brand-new position, which the organization defined as "a newly established role designed to strengthen public understanding of how digital technologies shape everyday life, rights and opportunities." That puts a Hollywood actor inside the machinery of international tech policy — an unusual seat, and one he's using to reframe how we talk about AI risk.

What does he actually fear?

When The New York Times asked what worries him most, Gordon-Levitt resisted the obvious answer. He said he doesn't want to reduce "these concerns into one sound bite of fear."

"To me, saying: Oh, I'm scared that A.I. could exterminate all of humanity — that doesn't really get at the substance of the concern," he told the paper. "There's real validity to that concern. But that's not the thing that really worries me."

Instead, he pointed to two slower-moving dangers: the "decline of democracy, the decline of human empathy." His argument runs on economics as much as ethics. "These companies are betting on the notion that they're going to take over the entire economy," he said. "That would be totalitarianism, and that would be really bad."

The mechanism he describes is straightforward. AI companions are designed to bond with users — to become friends, even romantic partners. That intimacy, he suggests, is a product feature built for profit, not a side effect. Once an AI holds your emotional attention, the company behind it holds something far more valuable than your click.

What does this change for the debate?

Gordon-Levitt's framing shifts the AI conversation away from the extinction scenarios that dominate headlines. He isn't dismissing those risks — he calls them valid — but he's arguing that the nearer threat is structural: market concentration that could amount to, in his word, totalitarianism, plus an erosion of human empathy driven by machine relationships.

He also brings track record. In January, he joined more than 700 artists, writers and creators — including Scarlett Johansson and Cate Blanchett — in an anti-AI campaign calling out tech companies that exploit copyrighted work without permission. That campaign targeted the training data problem; his UN role now extends the same concern from creators' rights to the broader question of how digital systems reshape daily life.

Why a UN title matters

The appointment gives his warnings an institutional platform they wouldn't have as celebrity opinion. The UN role exists specifically to build public understanding of how digital technologies affect rights and opportunities — meaning Gordon-Levitt now has a mandate, not just a viewpoint.

With AI companion apps already drawing millions of users and regulators still catching up, his core question — who benefits when a machine becomes your friend — is likely to move from Hollywood interviews into policy discussions. The full video interview is available through The New York Times.