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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: ‘The Law Should Be Shutting Them Down’: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Speaks at TIME100 AI Impact Dinner [Watch (HLS stream): ‘The Law Should Be Shutting Them Down’: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Speaks at TIME100 AI Impact Dinner](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/v702skfk.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2026-09-15. “So let’s just be clear here: today’s AI companies are operating in such a way that the law should be shutting them down.” Gordon-Levitt was one of 100 leaders, innovators, storytellers, and activists named in the 2026 TIME100 AI list, which highlights the year’s most influential people in AI. His remarks drew loud clapping, whoops, and cheers from many people in the audience, who gathered at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum on Monday night to celebrate the 2026 honorees. But Gordon-Levitt’s message was not one of genial praise. He said AI companies’ leaders and employees had publicly admitted their products were dangerous and could not be controlled — a reference, perhaps, to July’s cyberattack by a “swarm” of rogue OpenAI agents as well as multiple recent statements from current and former Anthropic employees warning that AI could end all human life. “To me, that’s pretty obvious that’s the time the law should step in,” Gordon-Levitt said. But, he went on, U.S. politicians had been “timid” and failed to act — perhaps, he alleged, because they were taking money from “some of the guys in this room.” (AI companies, allies, and executives spent at least $83 million on federal elections in 2025 and are set to spend even more this year, according to the New York Times.)_ “So let’s just be clear here: today’s AI companies are operating in such a way that the law should be shutting them down.” Gordon-Levitt was one of 100 leaders, innovators, storytellers, and activists named in the 2026 TIME100 AI list, which highlights the year’s most influential people in AI. His remarks drew loud clapping, whoops, and cheers from many people in the audience, who gathered at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum on Monday night to celebrate the 2026 honorees. But Gordon-Levitt’s message was not one of genial praise. He said AI companies’ leaders and employees had publicly admitted their products were dangerous and could not be controlled — a reference, perhaps, to July’s cyberattack by a “swarm” of rogue OpenAI agents as well as multiple recent statements from current and former Anthropic employees warning that AI could end all human life. “To me, that’s pretty obvious that’s the time the law should step in,” Gordon-Levitt said. But, he went on, U.S. politicians had been “timid” and failed to act — perhaps, he alleged, because they were taking money from “some of the guys in this room.” (AI companies, allies, and executives spent at least $83 million on federal elections in 2025 and are set to spend even more this year, according to the New York Times.) 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Tracking a niche topic? Build a personalized feed by following tags and authors to get updates as soon as they publish — no subscription required. [Get Started](/account/preferences/)Sign In ## Transcript Hey. Thank you everyone. Thank you. The time for having me here tonight. Uh, so this last week, a lot of people started talking about the potential pitfalls of AI. And I think that's healthy. Communicating is how we're going to find solutions, right? But there's something that I've noticed about a whole bunch of these conversations. And that is pessimism, right? You're hearing all these people saying we're so. They're saying like these AI businesses, they're just too big. There's nothing we can do. But that's not really true. There is something that can help when big businesses are threatening to do a bunch of harm. And this isn't some new idea. These are tried and true things. They're called laws. And I know the laws and the legal system in our country are far from perfect, but they actually do work pretty well in a lot of cases, oftentimes we don't even notice how well they're working. Like when you go to the market, right? How do you know that the food you're buying is going to be safe to eat? It's because of laws. Why are cars safe to drive or why are houses safe to live in? It's because car companies and construction companies, they have to operate to code. And that just means they follow laws. And if they don't, then the law can come and shut those companies down. So let's just be clear here. Today's biggest AI companies are operating in such a way that the law should be shutting them down. They're saying it. They're literally saying it. The employees and the leaders of these companies are saying, hey, everybody, we're building these really powerful autonomous agents and we can't really control them. And we think there's a really good chance that a lot of people end up harmed. They're saying that. So to me, that's pretty obvious. That's the time that the law should step in and be like, okay, hi, no, you're not allowed to do that. You guys are gonna have to stop and make some changes. And then once you can prove that your products and services are safe and good for people, then you may reopen for business. Thanks. I mean, that's, that's how it is supposed to work. That's how the law works, right? So the question is, why isn't the law doing that right now? And the answer is that when it comes to regulating AI, lawmakers in our country have been slow, they've been timid, and a lot of them have been taking money from the big tech lobby. So we need some new lawmakers, right? We need new congresspeople, new senators that can make some new laws that the AI companies have to follow. But how is the question? Right? How are we going to get a whole bunch of new lawmakers into office on such short notice? Oh, look at that. It's September 2026 in the United States of America, the midterm elections are right around the corner. That means it's now. Right now. Now is the perfect time to organize, to mobilize and to go out and vote in such strong numbers that they cannot stop us. Right. So this is what you do. You find out who is the senator running in your state, who is the congressperson running in your state. And then you find out what are their positions on AI. And if they say anything less than strong regulation. Now, you don't vote for him because they're probably taking money from some of the guys in this room. Hi, guys. Listen, I I'm not I am not going to believe that we are necessarily yet I think there are still some things that we can do. And is it going to be hard. Yeah. And are the odds against us? Maybe. But that doesn't mean we can't do it. We can. And honestly, we have to. Thanks. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://time.com/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/"},"name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/img/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://time.com/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Video","item":"https://time.com/video/"}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"‘The Law Should Be Shutting Them Down’: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Speaks at TIME100 AI Impact Dinner","description":"“So let’s just be clear here: today’s AI companies are operating in such a way that the law should be shutting them down.” Gordon-Levitt was one of 100 leaders, innovators, storytellers, and activists named in the 2026 TIME100 AI list, which highlights the year’s most influential people in AI. His remarks drew loud clapping, whoops, and cheers from many people in the audience, who gathered at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum on Monday night to celebrate the 2026 honorees. But Gordon-Levitt’s message was not one of genial praise. He said AI companies’ leaders and employees had publicly admitted their products were dangerous and could not be controlled — a reference, perhaps, to July’s cyberattack by a “swarm” of rogue OpenAI agents as well as multiple recent statements from current and former Anthropic employees warning that AI could end all human life. “To me, that’s pretty obvious that’s the time the law should step in,” Gordon-Levitt said. But, he went on, U.S. politicians had been “timid” and failed to act — perhaps, he alleged, because they were taking money from “some of the guys in this room.” (AI companies, allies, and executives spent at least $83 million on federal elections in 2025 and are set to spend even more this year, according to the New York Times.)","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/v702skfk/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-09-15T18:56:25.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/v702skfk.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video","duration":"PT3M59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```