If women want to keep up with the rapidly changing world of artificial intelligence, should they hand over their bank statements to an AI assistant?
Author and podcaster Mel Robbins faced backlash this month after telling her 12.3 million Instagram followers to use AI more, including suggesting they enter their financial information to “save time and money,” while promoting a partnership with Microsoft CoPilot.
Her post echoes recent messages from other celebrities, including actress Reese Witherspoon, who are encouraging women to make more use of AI or risk being left behind in the world’s progress. This sentiment has not been accepted by their supporters, and some experts say they are concerned.
“We cannot afford to be left behind,” Robbins warned in her post, citing a Harvard University study that found women use AI less than men.
Commenters were quick to slam Robbins’ advice, with one saying she “felt like she was reading a script written by someone who is kidnapping you and holding you to ransom.”
Canadian gynecologist Jen Gunter posted a counter-argument, urging people to never upload their financial information to AI, adding that it was “disgusting” to suggest that women use AI less than men, “meaning they are somehow being left out.”
But other celebrities and women in tech are promoting similar concepts.
“Everyone, it’s time.”
Reese Witherspoon faced backlash last month for a video she shared on Instagram and Threads. In it, she shared an anecdote from a book club where only 3 out of 10 women said they used AI.
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“I think we should all learn the basics together and learn really good tools to make our daily lives easier and better,” she said in the video.
“Everyone, it’s time.”
in her postShe wrote that women’s jobs are three times more likely to be automated by AI, and appeared to cite last year’s UN report in urging other women to learn the technology with her.
Commenters reacted furiously, accusing her of fear-mongering and giving “shillings” to “tech bros.”
“Have you ever thought that the reason women don’t use this word as often is because we’re not lazy or stupid?” asked author CD Reese.
Messaging will be built on the tech company’s story
Catalina Doria, an AI ethicist and social media personality based in São Paulo, Brazil, told CBC News that this type of message is based on a broader narrative that AI companies themselves tell about the inevitability of the technology.
Other veteran Hollywood stars have made similar comments, despite concerns about technology taking away jobs from human actors and filmmakers.
Actress Demi Moore said last month, when asked about AI regulation, that while film companies “probably” aren’t doing enough to protect themselves from AI, the technology is “here. So fighting it is fighting a battle we’re going to lose.”
When fellow actress Sandra Bullock was asked about the issue last month, she said, “We have to lean into this,” but added that people should be “careful.”
Doria says the fear that women will be left behind is real, the tech industry has historically been male-dominated, and those pushing the technology may have good intentions.
But she says pushing for adoption without critical AI literacy – understanding the technology, who is building it, who is benefiting from it and what the biases are – is an irresponsible framework that will “do more harm than good”.
“If you don’t have significant AI literacy and you say to people, ‘That’s the future, you have to use generative AI,’ what will happen is millions of women will outsource their brains to generative AI.”
AI could be the ‘great equalizer’: startup founder
In the world of technology, the use of AI is sometimes treated as a more explicitly feminist issue.
Charter Co-Founder Erin Grau wrote in time magazine In January, she said the technology “could be the great equalizer we’ve been fighting for, giving women the support, efficiency and confidence that traditional systems have consistently failed to provide.”
Sheryl Sandberg, Meta’s former chief operating officer, said her nonprofit Lean In hired 25-year-old CEO Bridget Griswold in part to address the “gender gap in AI.”
in April blog postGriswold writes that women need to embrace AI if they want to protect their livelihoods and advance their careers. He said the LeanIn study, which showed women were 38% more likely to have ethical reservations about AI, was “a sign of prudence that may still delay adoption.”
“Sneaky” message
Stacey-Lee Kong, a Toronto-based cultural critic and founder of the blog Friday Things, told CBC News that this type of messaging “feels a little sleazy.” “Because it positions this new technology as a universal, uncritical good, and it uses women to do that.”
“I don’t believe that AI is a social good enough to marginalize society, so it’s very unfortunate that women are being told that, and that it’s being said that out of raw greed,” Kong said, explaining why she thinks there’s been such strong online backlash.
Witherspoon acknowledged people’s “legitimate concerns” in a follow-up to her initial post, saying, “To be clear, no one is paying me to talk about this.”
Conn said that despite the backlash, some may take the advice of celebrities because people have been “trained” to prioritize convenience over privacy and security.
But she added that as the technology becomes increasingly popular, it is also important to highlight the lack of widespread regulation and the powerful companies in charge of it.
“Mel Robbins definitely should know that she shouldn’t upload all her financial information to a nameless, faceless AI bot. But at the same time, she didn’t create the bot,” Kong said. “There’s a lot of responsibility.”
