Reese Witherspoon knows a thing or two about impactful storytelling. As an award-winning actor and producer who’s championed writers and uplifted authors through Reese’s Book Club and her production company, Hello Sunshine, she of all people knows the power that comes with a pen.
So, when she dropped an Instagram post encouraging her 30.6 million followers to “learn as much as possible” about AI—more specifically, how we can use it to our advantage—I was taken aback. The same woman who’s made millions of dollars from film adaptations of compelling stories written by real people is telling us to be friends with the robots stripping our own words from us, which feels incredibly dystopian.
Of course, she shares her message through the guise of feminism in saying women’s jobs are more likely to be replaced by artificial intelligence, though they use it “at a rate 25% lower than men on average.” Which, sure, might be true. But her lessons in AI should also acknowledge the environmental, social, and political impacts it continues to have on society.
According to research conducted by the National University, 30 percent of current U.S. jobs could be automated by 2030, while 60 percent will have tasks significantly modified by AI. The same study suggests that 79 percent of employed women in the U.S. work in jobs at high risk of AI automation, compared to only 58 percent of men.
That doesn’t even cover the ongoing environmental impact of data centers, including how much energy is used on a single query. Research from MIT reveals that generating a single photo using AI consumes the same amount of energy as fully charging a smartphone. At that rate, we likely won’t even outlive the technology we continue to train with such questions.
Naturally, several writers and authors took issue with Reese’s post—especially because she’s known for uplifting their stories in her work.
“This is obviously a scripted ad and it’s genuinely infuriating. Notice how AI’s biggest defenders are the ones cashing checks from it,” screenwriter and director Charlene Bagcal wrote on Threads. “AI isn’t inevitable. Technology follows society. If people stop using it, it dies. We still have agency.”
We won’t have to “learn” the ways of technology if we’re still the ones controlling it. Generative AI wouldn’t even exist without the patterns in data created by humans, and there’s a chance we can’t fully be replaced by it because it won’t have anything to base its creations on.
Sure, using AI for efficiency in quickly organizing lists or completing mindless tasks can be beneficial. But relying heavily on it for creative endeavors or extensive research takes away the most powerful things we have: our autonomy, our voices, and, most importantly, our humanity.
Let’s just put it this way: If Elle Woods used ChatGPT to study for her LSATs, we’d lose the entire plot of Legally Blonde.
What, like it’s hard?
