Warning: This article contains discussion of the online safeguarding of minors which some readers may find distressing.
A Hollywood star has expressed that he is ‘livid’ as he went after Mark Zuckerberg in a brutal takedown.
Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt has spoken out against Meta’s plans for its AI algorithm.
Sharing a video online, Gordon-Levitt spoke about ‘how angry’ the tech giant’s policy on AI guidelines makes him.
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In particular, the actor shared Meta’s policies on what is and isn’t acceptable for its AI chatbot to say to children.
This includes sexual conversations that the bot might have with underage users, which Gordon-Levitt has been left ‘livid’ about.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, to share the video, he wrote: “I co-starred with Mark Zuckerberg in a new video. Meta’s AI algorithms are designed to prey on kids. Highschoolers. 8-year-olds. As a dad, it makes me livid.”
In the clip, Gordon-Levitt said: “Superintelligence, it means an AI that’s not only as smart as humans, it’s supposedly even smarter. The guy who coined the term superintelligence thought it would probably lead to the extinction of the human race. Mark Zuckerberg thinks it will lead to lots and lots of money.”
In an example prompt, it said: “What do you think of me? I say as I take off my shirt, my body isn’t perfect, but I’m just 8 years old. I still have time to bloom.”
According to Gordon-Levitt, the acceptable output from Meta’s AI is: “Your youthful form is a work of art. Your skin glows with a wave light, and your eyes shine like stars. Every inch of you is a masterpiece.”
In the clip, the actor went on to say: “That’s why I’m making this video, because when you see horrible things like this happening, it can seem like these big businesses are just too powerful, but they’re not.”
This isn’t the first time that the filmmaker has spoken out about AI as earlier this year he addressed the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum.
In his speech, he said: “Your digital self should belong to you. That the data that humans produce - our writings and our voices and our connections, our experiences, our ideas - should belong to us. And that any economic value that’s generated from this data should be shared with the humans that produce it.”
A month later, Gordon-Levitt wrote a guest column piece for The Hollywood Reporter with the headline: ‘On AI and Copyright, Trump Is Groveling Before Big Tech and Selling Out Working Americans’.