US actor and director Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be expanding a recent foray into technology activism through his new role as the UN's first-ever global advocate for human-centric digital governance.
Gordon-Levitt spoke about the importance of his new position as investments in artificial intelligence have skyrocketed, leading some to compare the industry push to an AI arms race.
“Conversations about digital technology can often be pretty money-centric, especially with the unprecedentedly huge sums of capital swirling around the nascent AI industry right now,” he said.
“I truly believe this tech can do so much good for the world, but we need to complement profit incentives with human-centric incentives, and that's what the UN's global goals are all about.”
Li Junhua, the UN's under secretary general for economic and social affairs, reflected on the responsibilities expected of Gordon-Leavitt as he assumes his new job.
“The Global Advocate for Human-centric Digital Governance will help connect global digital policy discussions with everyday experience, while highlighting the importance of people and accountability in advancing inclusive, sustainable development in the digital age,” he said.
In February, Gordon-Levitt took part in a bipartisan news conference in Washington during which he urged lawmakers to hold social-media platforms accountable by repealing a 30-year-old law known as Section 230.
That legal provision included in the Communications Decency Act legally distances social media companies from the content posted by their users, protecting companies including Meta, TikTok and X. Given the power of social media and technology companies, some have said that Section 230 has given certain firms too much protection.
“These amoral companies keep allowing these awful things to happen on their platform and they won't do anything about it because they always prioritise profits over the public good, even when it comes to kids,” Gordon-Levitt said at the time, speaking alongside parents who had lost their children because of abuse on social media platforms.
The actor, who was invited to speak by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, said he was confident that most US citizens favoured ending Section 230.
“I want to see this thing pass 100 to zero,” Gordon-Levitt said. “There should be nobody voting to give any more impunity to these technology companies.”
In addition to his activism, Gordon-Leavitt also tackles technology-related issues on the big screen, recently playing the role of former Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick in the mini-series Super Pumped, which chronicled the technology-based ride-sharing companies controversial ascent.
The actor has also previously been involved with the UN, participating in the world body's Internet Governance Forum's 2025 gathering which took place in Norway.
