TIME100 AI 2025: Natasha Lyonne Asks AI Leaders: "Whatever Happened to Being Cool?"

TIME

Natasha Lyonne, actor and co-founder of the Asteria Film Co. used her toast at the TIME100 AI Impact Dinner to appeal to those in the crowd to do far more to rein in AI.   She explained how she had come to espouse a “measure of concern around the potential for a collective tumble down into the world of AI without clear guardrails or open eyes.” Addressing the audience, whom she called “winners,” she implored AI leaders to “responsibly reassess” their own motives and the industry’s impacts and direction.

Transcript

00:00Oh boy, well folks, I'm writing it on the fly and see where it goes. I went long.

00:09First of all, it's just an honor to be here and to be among all of you. I'm

00:14humbled by all of you in this room. Anyway, hey folks, indeed I want to echo

00:25the big boys with a resounding thanks again to Melania's stellar education

00:31programs. Like that viral video said, wherever would our country be without

00:37those? I mean that sincerely, you know, just in case. Three years ago I found

00:46myself on stage in the Time 100 Gala in Manhattan, espousing a measure of

00:50concern around the potential for a collective tumble down into the world of

00:54AI without clear guardrails or open AI or open eyes into the looking glass with

01:01no road map home. Well, at the time it seemed quaint, you know, charming,

01:07inconsequential, a non-threatening speech so random ahead of its time and off

01:14topic that I was even able to call upon beloved and fringe ukulele performer Tiny

01:19Tim who sang tiptoe through the tulips to sweet laughs and nods of agreement all

01:25around. Now the feeling in the room was unanimous and palpable. Why ever would we

01:30be silly enough to give up and let AI win the day when we were so clearly at the

01:37peak of our powers as leaders and innovators? Well that speech slash warning

01:42came off as a comfort among that crowd. We shared this mutual knowingness, you know,

01:48that we're all part of this beautiful and perfect human ride together. I'm grateful to

01:54Time for listing me yet again. After all, in the ensuing years, in fact, I fully went down the

01:59rabbit hole with you all. I co-founded a studio with brilliant filmmakers and engineers and we had

02:06the profound distinction of the first underlying licensed model, of which I am deeply proud. I also

02:14had front seat access to the wider world of this wild west. And I'm not talking Tinseltown and movies.

02:22I mean the real world. And boy do I gotta say, I am quite shocked by the accelerated pace of our

02:30current situation. For reasons unknown, we have willingly submitted to a full surveillance state,

02:37done away with all copyright law, agreed to data theft for illusory convenience, and perhaps most

02:43egregiously allowed for sweeping and irresponsible data farming in our working-class communities,

02:48a clear and present danger to our environment and society. What are we doing, friends? Like,

02:53not to ask the obvious, but just, like, why? I mean, maybe, maybe my question tonight is a naive one,

03:04and that's A-okay. After all, I'm just an over-the-hill bimbo who sounds like Sylvester Stallone.

03:14But I guess it did feel incumbent on someone to just step up and at least question that old notion.

03:20You know, the one with great power comes great responsibility and so forth.

03:28Well, I need to believe in hope that we can wrestle some grace back here if we get unified around our

03:35shared humanity. Wait, what's that? An optimist in this economy? In this regime? And yet here I stand,

03:44humbly before you, wanting to believe. Real talk. Whatever happened to being cool?

03:52Wouldn't all those heavy hitters rather a legacy of some form of good? Like, for real,

03:57what's the vibe around here? It's just a bad look, friendos. Hot pitch. Let's turn it around.

04:07Back when I first learned of the existential risk posed by AI, I immediately had tentacles up. How

04:14swiftly we went from quaint paperclip problems to an empire of AI. One of our honorees tonight,

04:19Karen Howe, has made it quite clear we are now consolidating extraordinary amounts of political

04:24and economic power, laying waste to the environment, shortchanging labor, stealing data and IP and

04:30eroding democracy. What gives? When I was your age, that used to be the kind of thing that gave us

04:36collective pause to responsibly reassess. Well, still a dilemma. This promise, right, of progress,

04:43simultaneously appealing and yet eerily increasingly inevitable despite all better judgment. It seems the

04:49least we should do is get to protecting one another, maintaining this tidal wave rightly.

04:54To quote the great and recently deceased Asana Shakur, nobody in the world, nobody in history,

05:00has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.

05:05So one wonders, why bother? Why stand up here? And yet to quote Buckminster Fuller,

05:11we are called to be the architects of the future, not its victims. So I guess this one says,

05:17hey, fuck it, why not? Yeah, let's pause a moment, right? So we don't lose the plot, celebrate some?

05:26Congratulations to everyone here. You're all already winners, let's toast to that.

05:33Okay, I'm guessing that this speech won't win me too many invites to New Zealand safe houses,

05:38but I'd rather die in Manhattan anyway, so I'm not sweating it. You know, I've gotten some flack for,

05:45like you, being curious by all sides of this seductive conundrum, and maybe I'm guilty as charged.

05:51But, well, I believe it is a crucial moment, a crucial move in this moment to ensure that

05:57artists have a seat at the table rather than the other way around. You know, back when we set out

06:02to create this first licensed model in town, everyone said it was impossible. Turns out that was just a

06:08euphemism for costs more, meaning anything is possible at scale. I learned a lot from that lesson,

06:17and I'm proud by what we pulled off, and now I'm here and in it in this stew with you all, with more

06:24intel and more, you know, information than most perhaps. So yeah, I feel pretty committed to looking

06:33out for one another, seeing this thing through, before this whole thing derails into Upton Sinclair's

06:39The Jungle. You know that classic. Oof. Let's get some appropriate attributions and regulations going,

06:47rather than just burning down the house and acting like it was inevitable. I know it's inconvenient,

06:53it's expensive, but let's get real as technologists. It's possible if we want it and we fight for it,

06:58right? Let's also keep championing hope when we see it. Hey, shout out to AB 1064, the leading ethical

07:07AI development for Kids Act, which had real teeth. Kudos. Let's keep that kind of needed courage up.

07:15Call me a fool, but I got to believe in us and believe in hope, or at the very least the hope that

07:19we get very serious about those respectable throwbacks, you know, shame, accountability, tithing.

07:26Jesus is still popular, right? Whatever happened to philanthropically mandating wide sums towards

07:33clean energy? Let's protect our rural communities as we scale. It reminds me of, uh, once you had one,

07:41you know, Jacques's favorite dude. Oh, uh, Augustus Octavian. Festina Lente, make haste slowly,

07:49meaning thoughtful, mindful, measured ingenuity, lest we find we've played ourself a mess of baffled

07:58kings. And we all know that's coming, right? I swear there's room for nuance here if we just

08:04demand it of ourself, a sacred pause to look out for each other as we scale. There's no need to be

08:10quite so ruthless with our own species, folks. Yeah, I know, I know it's Altman's kink, but holy hell,

08:16is it reckless? May this be received with the humility and heart and open mind I intend it.

08:26I care deeply and believe this room is crucial enough to say this stuff and give it a shot.

08:33Now, before I peace out to a lifetime of being over audited by the IRS, I'd just like to thank

08:42time for this honor and the chance to be here with you all tonight. The opportunity to express some free

08:49speech while we still can. So, to quote the other tiny Tim, may God bless us all and to all a good night.

08:59Thanks.

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