Why Are Some of Our Favorite Hollywood Actresses Pivoting Hard Into AI!?
Reese Witherspoon decided to evangelize about AI on Threads, and she got way more than she bargained for. Social media lit her up in the comments.
This week, the beloved actress and producer hopped onto the platform stumping for Generative AI technologies. Unlike a lot of adherents though, she tried to cloak her rationale in female empowerment. It didn’t go over very well at all.
Folks quickly pointed out that there must be some sort of act she had to grind. Pair all of that with the fact that celebrities have a harder time on platforms like Threads and you have a recipe for a roasting of grand proportions. A good number of people in power haven’t gotten the memo yet that the average person doesn’t like generative AI. The branding has been a flop, to say the least.
But, that isn’t gonna stop people who are successful and have a financial stake in this technology from trying to drum up support in any corner they can find. Check out what Witherspoon had to say right here.
“Well…I’ve decided it’s TIME. The AI revolution has begun, and I need to learn as much as I possibly can about AI and share it with all of you,” Witherspoon posted. “Also, FYI: the jobs women hold are 3x more likely to be automated by AI, yet women are using AI at a rate 25% lower than men on average. We don’t want to be left behind. So…do you want to learn with me?”
Reese Witherspoon backing AI is disappointing
If you haven’t done a ton of reading about Generative AI, this probably seems rather benign in certain ways. But, the undertones are weak once you really take a second to think about it.
For one, all this hand wringing about women being more susceptible to AI “replacement” sounds dire but, in actuality it’s mostly just framing. In fact, a lot of the promised tasks that have been “contracted” out to AI have been failures. It’s not hard at all to go find examples of companies that dove into this wave head first firing people back furiously as things begin to break in short order.
And, honestly that’s to be expected. Because the AI isn’t smart, it’s just stealing inputs from humans without paying them for their labor.
That makes it doubly sad when Sandra Bullock also stumped for the technology this week. On-stage at the CNBC Changemakers Summit, the actress argued that it was already here. So, we should deal with it?
“Well, there could be worse with my image. Sorry,” Bullock began. “But it’s here. We have to observe it. And, we have to understand it. We have to lean into it, we have to use it in a really constructive and creative way, make it our friend.”
She added, “We have to be incredibly cautious and aware of it because there are people who will use it for evil and not good. I do feel that there’s a place for it.”
AI and the future
People on Threads seem to have this pegged generally. Namely, there’s nothing going on behind these statements but the bottom line. The idea that we should exist with harmful ideologies flies in the face of every development that was fought for in the previous century. It’s intellectually dull, as a matter of fact.
@electric_katie’s assessment is spot on. “Reese Witherspoon using feminism and women’s rights to sales pitch AI lets me know immediately that she is not a safe person.” Meg McSpadden might have something here too. She wonders, “My guess is that Reese just found out her financial advisor sunk a bunch of money into AI stock.”
Either way, it’s super disappointing. But, what isn’t in the big 2026.
(featured image: MGM)
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