Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo (born 1967) is a three-time Oscar nominee — for The Kids Are All Right, Foxcatcher, and Spotlight — and the Hulk of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A veteran environmental campaigner against fracking, he has carried that activist playbook into the AI fight on two fronts: catastrophic safety risk and creators’ rights.

Safety bills and stolen work

When Gavin Newsom vetoed California’s AI safety bill SB 1047 in September 2024, Ruffalo — who had campaigned for it alongside fellow actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt — attacked the veto publicly, telling Newsweek that Newsom’s economic reasoning echoed the influence fossil fuel and chemical industries have exerted over politicians, calling it dangerous thinking that “has led to catastrophic outcomes time and again.” The two actors co-authored a Time op-ed arguing the veto was a mistake and that safety rules would spur innovation rather than smother it.

In March 2025, Ruffalo joined more than 400 Hollywood figures — including Ben Stiller, Cate Blanchett, and Paul McCartney — in an open letter to the Trump administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, rebutting OpenAI’s and Google’s submissions that copyright law should let AI companies train on creative works without permission or pay. The letter accused the companies of seeking “a special government exemption so they can freely exploit America’s creative and knowledge industries.” Ruffalo has kept up the pressure on social media, amplifying AI-safety statements and creator boycotts of AI firms.