George Clooney has said governments should not be trusted to regulate artificial intelligence, arguing that lawmakers lack the technical understanding needed to oversee such powerful technology. Speaking at a Venice Film Festival symposium hosted by CAA and Finch & Partners, the actor joked about elderly politicians struggling to grasp basic technology while questioning AI executives, saying "these are not the people that you want to entrust the holy grail with." His comments highlight growing unease among public figures about who should be responsible for governing AI as it becomes more powerful and widespread.

Clooney warned that AI's greatest danger lies in eroding trust in reality itself, enabling both convincing fabrications and the dismissal of genuine events, including Holocaust denial being given false credibility. He cited his wife Amal Clooney's experience as a human rights lawyer encountering AI-generated fake legal cases, and raised concerns about deepfakes causing real-world harm, such as a fabricated video of a nuclear strike announcement. He noted AI tools are controlled by "the richest people in the world," and separately voiced support for potential Democratic presidential candidates including Senator Jon Ossoff, Governor J.B. Pritzker and Governor Andy Beshear, stressing the importance of democratic checks and balances.