Reese Witherspoon has built a brand as an advocate for books and reading, not just for women, and Reese’s Book Club, founded in 2017, is still going strong.
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So when she recently posted a video on Instagram and Threads promoting AI and saying, “It’s time to learn about AI before it gets too far ahead,” many people were kind of offended. As you know, this technology is built on the stolen works of thousands of writers and artists, and the very creators are at risk of losing their jobs.
Rather than using her massive platform to advocate for regulation of the AI industry that could protect women and artists, Reese is pushing the idea that if you don’t get in on the technology, you’ll be left behind. She previously spoke about how women in the film industry need to leverage AI, but now she extends that idea to all women. She includes an anecdote from her own personal book club. Of the 10 women who participated, only three had used AI and only one knew how to use it effectively. In some ways, this could suggest that not only are the majority of people avoiding AI, but that an AI takeover is not inevitable, as the industry suggests.
Still, Reese parrots the discourse of fellow AI engineers and tries to frame it as a kind of feminist, female-boss movement to take advantage of AI: “We need to learn a little bit to catch up. And the truth is, all of my kids use this every day. I think we should learn the basics together… and learn some really good tools that will make our daily lives easier and better.”
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Full video can be seen here:
This video was not well received by her viewers. Author Roxanne Gay replied, “Absolutely not.”
Other writers also objected.
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People also pointed out that this isn’t the first time Reese has promoted the use of controversial technology as a feminist act, bringing up that a few years ago she was obsessed with NFTs (which were also treated as inevitable and necessary, and which were not).
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In general, people were really, really angry.
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What do you think about Reese’s comments on AI? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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