You would think that someone so heavily invested in the arts would think twice about AI before establishing a hard point on it. Many actors have come under fire for similar sentiments about the technology. In fact just recently we wrote about Sandra Bullock‘s opinion about AI. But now another actor has entered the fold. This time it’s Legally Blonde star Reese Witherspoon who has something to say about AI.
Witherspoon sat down with her book club a while ago and stated some interesting opinions on the use of AI. Generally speaking she said that if we don’t hop on the technology train and learn something about it before it gets too big, that it will just pass us by and we’ll remain clueless about it. Which isn’t wrong in itself but could lead to serious implications later. And since she’s such a loved figure, this is undoubtably causing issues for her online.
She said:
“I said to the 10 of them, ‘How many of you guys use AI?’ And only three of them used AI. And then I said, ‘How many of the three of you feel like you really know what you’re doing or they’re using it the right way?’ And that was only one person,” Witherspoon detailed in a video shared on Instagram yesterday. “So, if three out of 10 women are the only ones using AI, that means 70 percent of that group is not keeping up. The thing I’ve learned about technology is if you don’t get a little bit of understanding from the very beginning, it just speeds past you. So you have to have little bits of learning just to keep up.”
Witherspoon then said, “Let’s get real, our kids are using this every single day.” She encouraged her followers to “learn the basics together” to “make our everyday lives easier and better.” She closed by saying, “It’s time. It’s time, people.”
Reese Witherspoon via The Hollywood Reporter
Witherspoon’s Instagram Reel has been viewed more than three million times. The video has been getting mixed responses with some loving that she’s so open and real about it. Others are begging her to reconsider her stance and look into data centers. Those centers alone are on track to damage the environment in ways that are unfixable. Pulling large amounts of power and resources and causing the prices of valuable tech to skyrocket. Soon people needing computer chips will just be SOL because AI has scooped up all the resources for the foreseeable future.
One commenter on Threads has a hot take that could really damage her reputation. They say, “She’s in the arts. AI is stealing and profiting off actual artists’ work. It’s also destroying the planet. She’s heavily invested monetarily in AI and this is where she is coming from.” That’s a pretty bold assumption but if it ever turned out to be true, could completely destroy her credibility.
For me? I think that she’s coming from a place of innocence. She doesn’t want our generation to get left behind and not know anything when our kids are utilizing AI everyday. It’s one of those things that we always made fun of our grandparents for because they didn’t know how to boot up a computer. She’s basically saying that we need to stay on top of it for knowledge reasons. If not to use it ourselves then to just be knowledgeable about it. Only after we learn about it can we have a real opinion on the matter. And yes, the people telling her to learn about data centers, everyone else should be doing the same. Preferably at the same time they are learning about various AI applications so they know EXACTLY what they’re doing.
