Reese Witherspoon, the Oscar-winning actress, producer, and famous book lover, sat down with her book club yesterday and learned a surprising fact about their exposure to artificial intelligence.
“I said to the 10 of them, ‘How many of you use AI?’ Only three of them used artificial intelligence. Then I said, “How many of you three feel like you really know what you’re doing or that they’re using it the right way?” “And that was just one person,” Witherspoon explained 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 that if you don’t get a little bit of understanding from the start, it will overtake you quickly. So you have to get a little bit of learning just to keep up with it.”
Witherspoon then said: “Let’s be real, our kids use this every day.” She encouraged her followers to “learn the basics together” to “make our daily lives easier and better.” “It’s time. It’s time, people,” she concluded.
At last check, Witherspoon’s Instagram Reel has been viewed more than three million times, and the roughly one-minute clip has received mixed reactions. Close friend Kerry Washington loved it, commenting: “This,” while CAA Energy Undersecretary Maha Dakhil commented, “So true.”
Others were less enthusiastic. “Dear Reese Witherspoon, now might be a good time to note that just because men do something doesn’t make it good or smart,” journalist Christina Binkley wrote on Threads. “Please start your education with data centers,” another woman commented on Instagram. “Where they are built, how much electricity they use, and the severe impacts on the communities in which they are located.”
Another user on Threads claims Witherspoon has other motives. “It’s in the arts. AI is stealing and profiting from artists’ actual works. It’s also destroying the planet. I’ve invested heavily financially in AI, and that’s where it comes from.”
Many concerned commentators pointed to the fact that Witherspoon, a prolific producer and actress, has long supported authors through her Reese’s Book Club and has made numerous screen adaptations, and authors were among the loudest voices opposing the technology when it was discovered that companies like OpenAI were using books to feed their own datasets. This practice has led to widespread lawsuits.
Watch Witherspoon’s clip below.
