Joseph Gordon-Levitt says the law should already be shutting AI companies down
Joseph Gordon-LevittActor and founder of HitRecord, giving a toast as a TIME100 AI honouree
Giving a toast at the TIME100 AI Impact Dinner, Gordon-Levitt compared AI to cars and housing, industries that must follow safety law or be shut down, and said today's AI companies are operating in a way that the law should already be stopping. He argued their own leaders and employees had admitted the products were dangerous and could not be controlled.
“Why are cars safe to drive? Why are houses safe to live in? It’s because car companies and construction companies ... they have to 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 AI companies are operating in such a way that the law should be shutting them down.”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Should Washington impose stronger safeguards on frontier AI?
Washington's frontier-AI safeguards dispute continued beyond September's calls for legislation. On September 29, Trump and six companies signed an accord covering internal controls, outside evaluations and board oversight, with possible later codification. Trump defended self-regulation and existing federal powers. Critics including Jon Stewart and Tom Wheeler argue that company-led oversight is insufficient. An October 9 task-force statement describes reporting and remediation as mandatory, but does not specify enforcement mechanisms or penalties. The question remains whether Washington's approach supplies adequate, enforceable safeguards while allowing continued AI development.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
TIME’s report of the toasts given at its own third annual TIME100 AI Impact Dinner, held at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum on the evening of Monday, September 14, 2026. Gordon-Levitt was named to the 2026 TIME100 AI list and spoke as one of three honourees giving toasts. Two widely syndicated renderings of these remarks add words the article does not print, so the quotation follows this source rather than the aggregators.
Before the quotation
Legislators, the president and frontier-AI company leaders had spent the previous fortnight arguing over whether Washington should impose enforceable safeguards, with Sanders proposing a pause and Speaker Johnson and Jensen Huang saying no new law was needed.
After the quotation
TIME reported that the remarks drew loud clapping and cheers from the audience. Gordon-Levitt went on to say politicians had been timid, suggested this was because they took money from people in the room, and urged Americans not to vote in November for any politician standing for less than strong regulation now.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Gordon-Levitt says current companies should be shut down under the law and criticizes politicians for failing to act. That rejects the present handling of AI safety.
- Recorded on
- Published here
More from this case
Read the full caseMenin says company self-regulation is insufficient
“When the federal government fails to act, cities take the lead”Read statement
Stewart criticizes company-led AI oversight
“why can't we just ... slow this down rather than let people regulate something they have a clear conflict of interest in regulating?”Read statement
Sam Altman says the world should accept some bad things happening for AI's benefits
“we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.”Read statement
Share or embed this statement
The embed keeps its attribution link to The Dispute Index. Credit the image to The Dispute Index and link to the statement page.
Cite this record
- Publisher
- The Dispute Index
- Title
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt says the law should already be shutting AI companies down
- First published
- Last updated
- Permalink
- https://disputeindex.com/events/937-giving-a-toast-at-the-time100-ai-impact
Last updated marks the most recent saved version of this published statement.
The Dispute Index. "Joseph Gordon-Levitt says the law should already be shutting AI companies down". First published: 2026-09-17. Last updated: 2026-10-12. https://disputeindex.com/events/937-giving-a-toast-at-the-time100-ai-impact