Hollywood lefties, including many liberals who have previously publicly insulted Donald Trump, are now begging for his help in pushing back against big tech proposals on AI.
President Trump unveiled a massive $500 billion plan to build up artificial intelligence projects in the United States on the first day of his second term. In January, He hosted SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Oracle’s Larry Ellison and OpenAI’s Sam Altman in the Roosevelt Room Tuesday afternoon to tout $500 billion of investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the U.S.
The project called ‘Stargate’ will also create an estimated over 100,000 jobs.
OpenAI and Google told Washington next week that they believe American copyright laws allow AI companies to train systems using copyrighted work without permission.
Why Hollywood Lefties Are Now Turning to Trump For Help
The liberal stars – including Ben Stiller, Olivia Wilde, Cynthia Erivo, Aubrey Plaza, Paul McCartney, Mark Ruffalo and Cate Blanchett – are asking Trump to push back on this.
They write that if OpenAI and Google were allowed to do this, it would ‘freely exploit America’s creative and knowledge industries, despite [OpenAI and Google’s] substantial revenues and available funds.’
‘We firmly believe that America’s global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries,’ the letter partly reads.
‘AI companies are asking to undermine this economic and cultural strength by weakening copyright protections for the films, television series, artworks, writing, music and voices used to train AI models at the core of multibillion-dollar corporate valuations.’
What They Said About Him
Many of the stars who signed the letter have slammed the president in the past.
Stiller, one of the biggest names on the list, called a 2017 Trump press conference the ‘worst message I have ever heard a president put out to the world.’
‘I despise Donald Trump with all my guts, and his speech last night only confirmed what a pathetic, petulant, dishonest pig he is,’ wrote actress Olivia Wilde that same year.
Director Ron Howard, who also signed, said in 2020 Trump is ‘a self-serving, dishonest, morally bankrupt ego maniac who doesn’t care about anything or anyone but his fame and bank account.’
Mark Ruffalo said earlier this year: ‘There is no one keeping America safe from being looted by Trump and Elon.’
He also calls his performance in the box office bomb Mickey 17 an ‘understated’ imitation of Trump and called his character a ‘petty dictator,’ according to Deadline.
Other big-name signatories include: Guillermo del Toro, Natasha Lyonne, Paul McCartney, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Cord Jefferson, Bette Midler, Ava Duvernay, Paul Simon, Ángel Manuel Soto, Taika Waititi, Ayo Edebiri, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lily Gladstone, Sam Mendes, Brit Marling, Janelle Monáe, Bryn Mooser, Rian Johnson, Paul Giamatti, Maggie Gylenhall, Alfonso Cuaron, Judd Apatow, Kim Gordon, Chris Rock and Michaela Coel.
