Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Sophia Bush are among the Hollywood actors jumping to defend their involvement with billionaire investor Peter Thiel’s shadowy dialogue group, assuring fans that they do not know the controversial conservative political activist and that the meetings are not a “single ideological gathering.”
Stars, including Josh Brolin, respond to the leaked attendance list Hollywood Reporter They went public this week, revealing to the public their affiliation to the private, sponsored-only group linked to Thiel, the co-founder of data analytics firm Palantir Technologies and the man apparently behind the group, which invites influencers around the world in politics, technology and media to discuss “unofficial thoughts” in privacy.
Researcher Maya presented the crimes of arson THR With materials about the group, including a membership guide and details about this year’s upcoming forum. Brolin, Gordon-Levitt, Bosch, Scooter Braun, Isaac Lee, A24’s Scott Belsky, composer and producer Bing Pasek, CEO Atlantic Nick Thompson and Ezra Klein New York Times She was one of the famous names in the guide. It also includes Trump administration officials, two senators, six members of the so-called PayPal mafia, the current ambassador to the United States, and several billionaires, including Elon Musk.
Scrutiny of Dialog and those named in the leaked list is growing, as questions swirl around how and why these Hollywood actors are invited to secret conferences and why they reach out to so many individuals with opposing viewpoints to discuss important hot-button issues in the shadows.
“I understand why people have questions and doubts,” Gordon-Levitt wrote in a statement on his personal Instagram page. “Some of the headlines and posts circulating about this matter are alarming, if not outlandish. So let me be clear: I have attended two dialogue conferences. But I do not know Peter Thiel. I have never met him. I have never spoken to him or his representatives. I have never seen him at an event. From what I have read about his views, we are politically and ideologically opposites.”
He added: “In the dialogue conferences that I visited, there was a wide range of people, with a wide range of opinions, some of which I agreed with and others I did not agree with. I cannot speak to every person named in the reports, but my experience was not related to one ideological grouping.”
Bush, who has become an advocate against deepfakes and produced the documentary Another body Regarding the issue, she said in a statement posted on social media that she is attending conferences to promote the film.
“You can imagine my surprise when I learned that the conference to which I was invited as a guest could counter the ‘it’s all progress’ narrative of this runaway AI race, was founded by someone you couldn’t pay me to be in a room with, much less charge me money to be in a room with,” Bush wrote. “To be clear, this person was not present, was never brought up during my experience there at all, and as I have since learned, has not been involved at all in about 15 years.”
However, Bush still defended the controversial conference in the same way as Gordon-Levitt, saying it was important to hear other points of view.
“I found the conference weekend valuable, in the same way I find it rewarding to come together and important to engage with people who see the world differently than I do, in addition to the work I do alongside like-minded allies,” she wrote. At the same time, “I wish I had researched this event in advance, but even if I had, I probably would have gone because I firmly believe that having women standing up for women (and ringing alarm bells about our shared and dangerous experiences with emerging technology) in rooms like this is of the utmost importance.”
Brolin previously responded to an inquiry about his involvement via a representative, who said THR that There is no country for old men The actor “would like to know what he got himself into.”
Material leaked to THR Learn about the range of session topics at this year’s conference in Dublin. There is a heavy emphasis on the topics of geopolitics and technology. Many of them relate to controversial issues, such as “Returning Nuclear Weapons,” “Disinformation and Deepfakes,” “Battlefield Technologies,” “Democracy Under Surveillance,” “Taiwan and the AI Race,” and “Three Predictions in Iran.” It also reflected more individual-oriented themes, such as “What’s Your Sex Life Like”, “It’s Fun to Be Responsible”, and “Research-Based Longevity Tricks” along with some very dark themes, with themes including “building a cult” and “navigating World War III”.
Dialog also features an internal dating function, used to match members with each other, and offers discussions on book recommendations, the impact of technology on humanity and the future, among other topics.
