George, Amal Clooney say it's Time to Retake the Truth
"We used to believe what we read. We learned not to do that. Now we have to learn to not believe even what we see," George Clooney says.
by JV Ordoñez
Published on Nov 18, 2025
In an age where artificial intelligence is advancing at a rate that could lead to human-like machine learning, George and Amal Clooney have been at the forefront of advocating for the responsible use of these tools to afford journalists and anyone else their basic rights.
George may not be swinging across buildings in Gotham City to fight crime with his fists, but he is still doing Batman-like detective work through his Satellite Sentinel Project that helps journalists document things like mass graves and troop buildup in conflict zones and in real time.
He also spearheaded The Sentry initiative, which follows the money trails of infamous and dangerous warlords and pressures banks and other legitimate institutions to avoid doing business with these bad actors and dictators.
At the Rappler Social Good Summit this year, Clooney cited the time he organized boycotts of the Sultan of Brunei's hotel chains at a time when the monarch announced he would execute his citizens for being gay. The Hollywood A-lister's plan worked since just after a month, the Sultan chose to reverse the policy since his luxury hotel brands couldn't risk the damage to their respective reputations. Though this was likely not because of a change of heart, but rather something he was forced to do for the sake of business.
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"When the Sultan of Brunei says he's going to execute people for being gay, we didn't think that was going to change his mind. We went to businesses behind the scenes and said, you're next," he said during a sit-down discussion with Rappler Chief Executive Officer Maria Ressa, who was his human rights lawyer wife's client after the Duterte administration's barrage of legal cases against the journalist. "You cannot guilt bad guys into doing the right thing. They don't care. "
He also hammered home points on staying vigilant of adhering to false narratives that are far too tricky to maneuver around due to the prevalence of deepfakes and AI used with malevolent intent.
Losing faith in media and the dissemination of information is a tricky situation and shows that journalists have a lot of work to do to ensure they are telling the whole picture or are falling victim to smoke screen narratives caused by new tech.
"And now we have to learn to believe, not believe even what we see. That's a trickier element," he said. "It's very hard to train us to say that person that's speaking right now is actually a Sora 2 AI-generated human that looks very real. It looks like me. It wants to look exactly like me. And it's very hard to explain that."
The Clooneys visited the Philippines on November 16 to headline Rappler's yearly summit that tackles issues such as the decriminalization of libel, which Amal said she brought up with her meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr.
"President Marcos spoke on Friday of his administration’s ‘unwavering commitment to upholding press freedom.’ Some people will say that these are empty words. We shall soon see. But I appealed to President Marcos to do all that he could to create a safe space for all journalists in this country," Amal Clooney, the international human rights lawyer, said in her speech at the summit.
Journalists in the Philippines still face problems such as being tagged as members of the communist movement, being subject to weaponized lawsuits and cases to silence them, and even being at risk of constant death threats from the powers that be.
Last month, the Clooney Foundation for Justice launched the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice, which is intended to promote the use of AI and emerging tech for justice and the right to fair and timely civil and criminal trials.
Amal has spearheaded something called the AI Justice Atlas that maps how AI is being used country by country in criminal trials, which will also involve Philippine courts sometime in the near future.
"And then we’re also trying to put this technology into the hands of those who need it the most, and help them get legal remedies. So it’s something I’d love to explore," the lawyer said.
AI, Justice, and why the Philippines matters
"Many journalists, as well as judges, lawyers, and other advocates, have been red-tagged by authorities as ‘communists’ or ‘terrorists’ without proof, leading to harassment, detention, and in some cases even death. And thousands of people here have been charged with cyber libel offenses for their speech," Clooney continued on in her speech about threats to persistent threats to local journalists.
Last month, the Clooney Foundation for Justice launched the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice, which is intended to promote the use of AI and emerging tech for justice and the right to fair and timely civil and criminal trials.
The institute will bring together the lawyers, policymakers, and experts in the fields of AI and machine-learning to tackle the burgeoning tech space's intersection with law. Think of questions like how legal frameworks accomodate cyber warfare, if attorney-client privilege extends to AI chatbots, and if there is an algorithmic bias in criminal justice.
Amal has spearheaded something called the AI Justice Atlas that maps how AI is being used country by country in criminal trials, which will also involve Philippine courts sometime in the near future.
"And then we’re also trying to put this technology into the hands of those who need it the most, and help them get legal remedies. So it’s something I’d love to explore," the lawyer said.
The Clooney Foundation has championed initiatives that also address gender-based violence, particularly those in conflict zones and a focus on accountability for sexual violence.
She noted that the Philippines, being Asia's oldest democracy and with an energetic youth, is a proving ground for enhancing the local justice system to catch up on legal remedies for victims of cyber attacks
"This is a generation that has energy, that has determination, that has knowledge," Amal said.
"You're the record-breakingly English-speaking online, very informed, and the people that I've met are not sitting on the sidelines. They're already determined to be agents of change. That's much more impressive than anything I was doing at their age."
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