--- title: TIME100 AI 2025: Natasha Lyonne Asks AI Leaders: "Whatever Happened to Being Cool?" | TIME description: 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. canonical: https://time.com/video/03EQb5nY/ og:title: TIME100 AI 2025: Natasha Lyonne Asks AI Leaders: "Whatever Happened to Being Cool?" og:description: 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. og:url: https://time.com/video/03EQb5nY/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/03EQb5nY/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME100 AI 2025: Natasha Lyonne Asks AI Leaders: "Whatever Happened to Being Cool?" twitter:description: 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. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/03EQb5nY/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * Tech # TIME100 AI 2025: Natasha Lyonne Asks AI Leaders: "Whatever Happened to Being Cool?" > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TIME100 AI 2025: Natasha Lyonne Asks AI Leaders: "Whatever Happened to Being Cool?" [Watch (HLS stream): TIME100 AI 2025: Natasha Lyonne Asks AI Leaders: "Whatever Happened to Being Cool?"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/03EQb5nY.m3u8) (9:04)  _Published 2025-10-14. 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._ --- Oct 21, 2025 9:20 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [AI Leaders Talk How AI Can Transform Business at TIME100 Impact Dinner](/video/IPB8K7Dq/) ### AI Leaders Talk How AI Can Transform Business at TIME100 Impact Dinner [TIME100 Impact Awards in Dubai: Will AI Make a Positive or Negative Impact on Society?](/video/enLAcJfI/) ### TIME100 Impact Awards in Dubai: Will AI Make a Positive or Negative Impact on Society? [TIME100 Impact Awards in Dubai: How Will AI Transform Society?](/video/inPckn4o/) ### TIME100 Impact Awards in Dubai: How Will AI Transform Society? --- ## Transcript Oh, boy. Well, folks, I'm writing it on the fly and see where it goes. I went long. Uh, first of all, it's just an honor to be here and to be among all of you. I'm humbled by all of you in this room. And, uh. Anyway, uh. Hey, folks. Uh, indeed, I want to echo the big boys with a resounding thanks again to Melania's stellar education programs like that viral video said, wherever would our country be without those? I mean that sincerely. You know, just in case. Three years ago, I found myself on stage in the time 100 gala in Manhattan, espousing a measure of concern around the potential for collective tumble down into the world of AI without clear guardrails or open AI, or open eyes into the looking glass with no roadmap home. Well, at the time, it seemed quaint, you know, charming, inconsequential, a non-threatening speech so random ahead of its time, an off topic that I was even able to call upon beloved and friend ukulele performer Tiny Tim, who sang Tiptoe Through the Tulips to sweet laughs and nods of agreement all around. Well, the feeling in the room was unanimous and palpable. Why ever would we be silly enough to give up and live and let AI win the day when we were so clearly at the peak of our powers as leaders and innovators? Well, that speech slash warning came off as a comfort among that crowd. We shared this mutual knowingness. You know that we are all part of this beautiful and perfect human ride together. I am grateful to time for listing me yet again. After all, in the ensuing years, in fact, I fully went down the rabbit hole with you all. While I co-founded a studio with brilliant filmmakers and engineers, and we had the profound distinction of the first underlying licensed model of which I am deeply proud. I also had front seat access to the wider world of this Wild West. And I'm not talking tinsel town and movies. I mean the real world. And boy, do I got to say, I am quite shocked by the accelerated pace of our current situation. For reasons unknown, we have willingly submitted to a full surveillance state, done away with all copyright law, agreed to data theft for illusory convenience, and perhaps most egregiously, allowed for sweeping and irresponsible data farming in our working class communities, a clear and present danger to our environment and society. What are we doing? Friends like? Not to ask the obvious, but just like, why? I mean, maybe, maybe my question tonight is a naive one, and that's A-okay. After all, I'm just an over-the-hill ***** who sounds like Sylvester Stallone. But I guess it did feel incumbent on someone to just step up and at least question that old notion. You know, the one with great power comes great responsibility and so forth. Well, I need to believe in hope that we can wrestle some grace back here if we get unified around our shared humanity. Wait. What's that? An optimist in this economy and this regime. And yet, here I stand humbly before you, wanting to believe real talk. Whatever happened to being cool? Wouldn't all those heavy hitters rather a legacy of some form of good? Like for real? What's the vibe around here? It's just a bad look friend. Those hot pitch. Let's turn it around. Back when I first learned of the existential risk posed by AI, I immediately had tentacles up how swiftly we went from quaint paperclip problems to an empire of AI. One of our honorees tonight, Karen Howe, has made it quite clear we are now consolidating extraordinary amounts of political and economic power, laying waste to the environment, shortchanging labor, stealing data and IP, and eroding democracy. What gives? When I was your age, that used to be the kind of thing that gave us collective pause to responsibly reassess. Well, still a dilemma. This promise right of progress simultaneously appealing and yet eerily, increasingly inevitable, despite all better judgment, seems the least we should do is get to protecting one another, maintaining this tidal wave rightly, to quote the great and recently deceased Assata Shakur, nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them. So one wonders, why bother? Why stand up here? And yet, to quote Buckminster Fuller, we are called to be the architects of the future, not as victims. So I guess this one says, hey, **** it. Why not? Yeah. Let's pause a moment. Right. So we don't lose the plot. Celebrate some. Congratulations to everyone here. You're all already winners. Let's toast to that. Okay, I'm guessing that this speech won't win me too many invites to New Zealand safe houses. But I'd rather die in Manhattan anyway, so I'm not sweating it. You know, I've gotten some flak for, like, you being curious by all sides of this seductive conundrum. And maybe I'm guilty as charged, but, well, I believe it is a crucial moment, a crucial move in this moment to ensure that artists have a seat at the table rather than the other way around. You know, back when we set out to create this first licensed model in town. Everyone said it was impossible. Turns out that was just a euphemism for costs more meaning anything is possible at scale. I learned a lot from that lesson and I'm proud by what we pulled off. And now I'm here and in it, in this stew with you all, with more Intel and, uh, more, you know, information than most, perhaps. So, yeah, I feel pretty committed to looking out for one another, seeing this thing through before this whole thing derails into Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. You know, that classic. Ooh, let's get some appropriate attributions and regulations going rather than just burning down the house and acting like it was inevitable. I know it's inconvenient. It's expensive. But let's get real. As technologists, it's possible if we want it and we fight for it, right? Let's also keep championing hope when we see it. Hey, shout out to AB 1064, the leading ethical AI development for Kids Act, which had real teeth. Kudos. Let's keep that kind of needed courage up. Call me a fool, but I got to believe in us and believe in hope. Or at the very least, the hope that we get very serious about those, uh, respectable throwbacks, you know, shame, accountability, tithing. Jesus is still popular, right? Whatever happened to philanthropically mandating wide sums towards clean energy? Let's protect our rural communities as we scale. I reminds me of once that one, you know, Zuck's favorite dude. Oh, uh, Augustus. Octavian. Festina lente. Make haste slowly meaning thoughtful, mindful, measured ingenuity. Lest we find we've played ourselves a mess of baffled kings. And we all know that's coming, right? I swear there's room for nuance here. If we just demanded of ourself a sacred pause to look out for each other as we scale. There's no need to be quite so ruthless with our own species, folks. Yeah, I know, I know, it's Altman's kink, but holy hell is it reckless. May this be received with the humility and heart and open mind I intended. I care deeply and believe this room is crucial enough to say this stuff and give it a shot. Now, before I piece out to a lifetime of being over audited by the IRS. I just like to thank time for this honor and the chance to be here with you all tonight. The opportunity to express some free speech while we still can. So, to quote the other Tiny Tim, may God bless us all and to all a good night. 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