Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Sophia Bush address Dialog conference list

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Sophia Bush have spoken out after their names were included on an alleged list of people invited to the Dialog conferences.

On Thursday, editors at The Hollywood Reporter published leaked information about a forum for the controversial, invite-only society founded by Peter Thiel and Auren Hoffman, in which leaders can "discuss topics off-the-record".

Among the celebrities on the alleged invite list were the (500) Days of Summer actor and One Tree Hill actress, as well as the likes of Josh Brolin and Scooter Braun.

Following the news, Gordon-Levitt took to his Instagram page to issue a rare statement in which he confirmed that he had previously attended two Dialog conferences.

However, he insisted that he had never met billionaire Thiel, who has made substantial donations to right-wing figures and causes in American politics.

"I've never seen him at an event. From what I've read about his views, we are political and ideological opposites," he wrote. "At the Dialog conferences I've been to, there were a wide variety of people, with a wide variety of opinions, some I agreed with, some I didn't. I can't speak to every person named in the reporting, but my experience was not of a single ideological gathering."

In addition, Gordon-Levitt emphasised that he's been trying to make "a positive impact on how the future unfolds, especially when it comes to tech and AI".

"Part of that work means forming relationships with all kinds of people, trying to understand their perspective, and trying to get them to understand mine. Sometimes it's productive to engage with those we oppose," the 45-year-old added.

And in a statement posted via X, Bush explained that she "accepted nearly every single invitation I received" to conferences in the past couple of years to speak about the 2023 deepfake porn documentary Another Body with fellow executive producer Nia Batts.

"You can imagine my surprise to learn that a conference I was invited to as a guest who could counter the 'it's-all-progress' narrative of this seeming runaway Al race was founded by someone you could not pay me to be in a room with, let alone charge me money to be in a room with!?" she declared. "To be clear, that individual was not present, was never brought up during my experience there at all, and as I've since learned, he has not been involved whatsoever in approximately 15 years."

To conclude her message, Bush noted that her values are "very clear and consistent".

"I work to protect families - by defending democratic institutions and safeguarding basic human rights," the 43-year-old continued. "I do wish I would have researched the event beforehand, but even if I had, I probably still would have gone because I firmly believe that having women standing up for women (and ringing alarm bells about our common and dangerous experiences with emerging technology) in rooms like these is of paramount importance."

Elsewhere, a spokesperson for Brolin told The Hollywood Reporter that he would "like to know what the f**k he got himself into".