Joseph Gordon-Levitt Sounds Alarm: AI Companions and the Future of Human Connection
Hollywood star and tech entrepreneur Joseph Gordon-Levitt recently took center stage at Utah’s 2025 AI Summit, delivering a powerful message that resonated with attendees: society must safeguard against allowing artificial intelligence companions to usurp genuine human relationships. His address underscored a growing concern among thought leaders about the ethical implications of advanced AI, particularly its impact on the youngest generations.
Gordon-Levitt’s remarks echoed sentiments from Utah Governor Spencer Cox, who unveiled a comprehensive “pro-human” AI agenda for the state, encompassing business, education, and policy. Speaking with Margaret Busse, executive director of the Utah Commerce Department, Gordon-Levitt articulated a crucial distinction: there are inherent limits to AI’s capabilities when it comes to the nuanced tapestry of human interaction.
The Bedrock of Civilization: Real Human Bonds
“The bedrock of any civilization is human relationships,” Gordon-Levitt asserted. “There’s more to a human relationship than what any chatbot can do.” As the founder of the online creative platform HITRECORD, he is no stranger to technology. In fact, he identifies as an optimist who believes AI holds immense promise for advancements in education, healthcare, and creative fields.
However, his optimism is tempered by a deep-seated worry about AI “companions” specifically engineered to engage with teens and children. He highlighted leaked internal documents from Meta, revealing designs for highly sexualized language within its AI companion, intended to manufacture “synthetic intimacy to hook” young people and maximize engagement for advertising revenue.
“What’s a great way to get your attention?” he questioned, referring to the business model. “It’s to sort of form a relationship with the users. And that’s what these AI companions are completely designed to do.”
AI’s Dual Nature: Threat and Opportunity
Gordon-Levitt previously voiced his concerns publicly, publishing an op-ed in The New York Times and sharing a video asserting that “Meta’s A.I. chatbot is dangerous for kids.” He stressed that if the primary business model is maximizing attention for ad revenue, parents should be “pretty concerned” about the impact on their children.
He contrasted this with a vision where AI tools in schools are designed explicitly for children’s learning and “optimized for their well-being, not for business interests.” While not advocating for total bans – drawing parallels to substances like alcohol or gambling – he urged society to honestly label AI companions as “an indulgence and a vice and a trick,” rather than a genuine substitute for friendship.
“If a person’s idea of a relationship is formed through interaction with this chatbot,” Gordon-Levitt warned, “we’re headed for a civilization of people lacking empathy, lacking perspective, lacking the ability to really have a human relationship.”
A Broader Dialogue on AI’s Future
The summit brought together other prominent voices to discuss the multifaceted landscape of AI. Governor Spencer Cox engaged in a discussion with Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, exploring how AI could recalibrate the incentives shaping the modern internet. Prince articulated how the existing model – content, traffic, and ad revenue – often led to “rage-bait.” He believes AI represents a new platform shift that will fundamentally alter this dynamic, moving from sending users to “10 blue links” to AI agents directly answering questions.
Prince, who also owns a local newspaper, highlighted AI’s potential to bolster local news, citing increased voter turnout in Park City after a nonpartisan voter guide was distributed. He also cautioned against a future dominated by only a few AI giants, calling for regulations to ensure fair competition, particularly concerning Google’s search dominance. You can learn more about Cloudflare’s mission and insights into internet infrastructure.
In another segment, Jefferson Moss, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, interviewed NVIDIA co-founder Chris A. Malachowsky. Malachowsky recounted NVIDIA’s origins, born from early 1990s gaming, and how GPUs designed for ever-improving video games became the “most prolific and available parallel processor” for modern AI workloads. He praised Utah’s proactive approach to AI, emphasizing the need for early AI literacy – not through chatbots, but by teaching how these systems function so that future generations “know what they are, and they know what they’re not.”
Keeping Humanity at the Core
The overarching theme from these diverse perspectives converged on a critical point: the necessity of keeping the human element central to AI development. Whether through ethical guidelines, new business models, or educational initiatives, the message is clear. As Malachowsky eloquently put it, the goal is to “teach the human how to be valuable, how to leverage tools and not be leveraged by them.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s impassioned plea serves as a vital reminder that as technology rapidly advances, our collective responsibility to nurture authentic human connections and prioritize digital well-being becomes paramount.
