Joseph Gordon-Levitt, actor and founder of media platform HitRecord, sits down for an exclusive interview with TaiwanPlus News to discuss how technology can improve democracy and collaboration in art.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So I understand this is your first time in Taiwan. What brings you here this time?
00:03My first time ever in Taiwan. I'm so happy to be here.
00:06I was invited here by Audrey Tong, whose book, Plurality, has just come out.
00:11It's one of my favorites that I've read in a long time.
00:13It makes me optimistic about the future of technology and democracy
00:17in ways that I haven't felt in years, to be honest.
00:21And when she invited me, I jumped at the chance.
00:24Yeah, well, you shared the stage with her at the Plurality Summit.
00:28Tell us some takeaways from the summit that you found.
00:30Speaking as an American, in my country,
00:35people's faith in democracy is at a low point, sadly enough.
00:40People don't believe as much in the institutions of democracy
00:46and the idea that the people can really be a part of governing themselves.
00:50It's the whole idea of the United States of America.
00:54And here in Taiwan, we're seeing an example of people
01:00genuinely, legitimately having a say in what their government does.
01:05The systems that Audrey has designed and implemented here in Taiwan,
01:09I think, have allowed people here to come together over their differences,
01:14have productive discussions, find consensus,
01:18and have those ideas ultimately make their way into government and policy.
01:22It's incredible to see.
01:24It's really uplifting for me.
01:26Are there any of the particular platforms or steps that Audrey had proposed
01:32that you'd like to see implemented back in the States?
01:34Yeah, well, for example, social media that's coming out of Silicon Valley
01:38in the United States, it really amplifies differences.
01:42It amplifies people hating each other, arguing with each other.
01:46Why? Because arguing and that kind of thing
01:49tends to make more money for their advertising models.
01:52But the sort of equivalent social media systems
01:56that Audrey's put in place here in Taiwan actually amplify consensus.
02:00You get more attention on the feed.
02:02Your post is more likely to rise to the top on the social network
02:06if you're helping build bridges,
02:09not if you're helping tear the other one down.
02:12That kind of simple change can really make a big difference.
02:16And when I first heard Audrey describing it,
02:18I found it so remarkable that I wanted to learn more.
02:22So your company, Hit Record, actually produced a pretty popular video
02:26here in Taiwan called Lost in Taiwan in 2020.
02:29That was a collaboration of 150 different artists.
02:32Tell us what does the process for a collaborative film like that look like?
02:37Well, that short film, Lost in Taiwan, it's funny.
02:39People have asked me here,
02:41so welcome back to Taiwan because you shot that short film in Taiwan.
02:45And in fact, this is my first time here in Taiwan.
02:49And we did produce that short film, but I wasn't here shooting it.
02:53It was made in a different way on this online platform
02:56where people were coming together on our website
02:59and different people wrote different lines about their experience of Taiwan.
03:05I think a lot of those writers were people from here who lived here.
03:09And then different actors would perform those lines
03:13and different people would shoot video around the country
03:16and contribute all of those things together.
03:18And eventually, they all got edited together into the montage short film.
03:23Yeah, and the business model actually includes a way
03:25to kind of pay all of these people in a fair way.
03:27Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
03:28Yeah, it's one of the things that bothers me most
03:32about some of the bigger internet platforms is we all contribute our data.
03:38We contribute our content to these platforms.
03:40And, you know, Facebook, et cetera,
03:43they make lots of money by putting ads on our content that we created,
03:48but they don't compensate generally.
03:51And you came out with this op-ed last year in The Washington Post
03:54saying that there needs to be more of a legal and technical way
03:57for people to get paid for their contributions to these generative AI models.
04:02Now, we're a year past that op-ed.
04:04Do you think we've gotten any closer to that kind of model?
04:07I think we have gotten closer, but we're certainly not there yet.
04:12I think we've gotten closer in that people are starting to take notice.
04:16People are starting to pay attention and ask questions.
04:19How are these AI models built?
04:22Oh, everybody's data is going into these models?
04:27Well, did they get everybody's permission for that?
04:30And if they're making a bunch of money from these models,
04:32are they going to pay the people whose data was used to build the models?
04:36These questions, I think, are starting to be asked.
04:38And asking the question is the first step to getting the answer.
04:43Do you have any other plans to make films in Taiwan?
04:46I would love to, yeah.
04:48Well, it's been really inspiring being here,
04:50talking to Audrey and the enormous, lovely community
04:54that she's introduced me to, the GovZero community and the vTaiwan community.
04:58And I do think it would be really inspiring to make a film
05:03about some of these ideas and these communities.