Hello Wonderful.
We're not AI blind optimists. Nor are we apoc-AI-lyptic. But, we’re absolutely baffled by the hornet's nest Reese Witherspoon kicked up last week when she simply posted: "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." How is this controversial? How is this offensive? Did she say she hopes AI takes all our jobs, destroys our planet, and replaces human creativity with robots? No. She stated the obvious: AI is here. Pandora's box is open. Boycotting it or burying our heads in the sand won't change the tsunami of uncertainty headed our way so, like true Perennials, we might as well dig in and learn.
But here's what should actually alarm us: outside of Daniela Amodei, Fei-Fei Li, and Mira Murati, Lila Ibrahim and a handful of other brilliant female founders, operators, and executives — every AI company creating and controlling AI is founded and run by men. It's Internet 1.0 all over again, except AI will be omnipresent and ubiquitous shaping how we think, work, learn, and decide.
If people opt out, AI still gets built. It just gets built without their vital voices, questions, experiences, and corrections feeding the models—the same models that will shape how the rest of the world operates and understands itself.
It’s for this reason we are vibe coding an AI Literacy App called THE WHAT AI (launching soon). We are hand curating the best resources, videos, blogs, podcast, experts, and courses we love—creating our own tried and tested WHAT LIST of easy to digest tutorials—to get you up to speed and empower you to make AI work for you, not the other way around. Like Reese, we are learning as much as we can and can’t wait to share it with you.
So rather, than writing us hate mail, hit the comment button and calmly tell us how you’re feeling about it all. We’re not your enemy but if AI runs unchecked, you’ll have a new adversary.
So, how are you feeling about AI?
Hit the Comment button and tell us.👇
P.S. We don’t paywall our content because we believe that if you find THE WHAT helpful, you’ll help keep us thriving. We celebrate our supporters in The Wall of Fame.
THE SHOW. If the first stress-inducing season of Beef with Ali Wong is preventing you from watching Season 2 with Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac, think again. This year it’s more White Lotus than John Wick and the cast is to die for. Literally. Watch here.
THE SOFT. Two hundred dollar sweat pants is preposterous #occupythewhat! That’s what we thought until we slipped on this featherweight cashmere track pant from Negative Underwear, our favorite place for whisper soft underpinnings. Mother’s Day is coming up …
THE STREAM. We almost skipped Is This Thing On, Bradley Cooper's new film, which he wrote and directed, starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern. From the posters, it looked like a rom com about two middle-aged singles finding love at a stand-up club. But it's really about rekindling a lifelong marriage that's turned more soul sucking than face sucking. And, most importantly, before you start blaming your partner for your unhappiness how you have to switch yourself back on before you can turn on anyone else. Sound familiar? Watch here.
THE BESTSELLER. If you want to truly understand how our current iteration of AI came to be and is shaping up to be a new boys club of billionaires, read Karen Hao’s book Empire of AI . You might understand our panic in getting more women and underrepresented people using, shaping, building with, and correcting these models. Order here.
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This isn't the whole picture, though. Part of the outrage stems from the fact that Reese sold Hello Sunshine to Black Rock, an investment company that has gone all in on AI. If AI fails, so do they. Celebrities promoting AI are not doing it because they see its value; they want to make money. The irony is that if this tech works as well as the oligarchs want it to, they'll be irrelevant. It's also a bit disingenuous because this tech will hurt women more, and to make it feel like learning about AI is some kind of public service to women feels like the opposite of being a good feminist, something that's been a huge part of her platform.
Thank you for writing this post, ladies. As a female sci-fi filmmaker and futurist who writes a newsletter on entertainment and emerging tech, I’d love to say I was surprised by the backlash, but sadly, I wasn’t. Adobe hired me to make a hybrid AI short film - still hiring actors and crew -about the power of collective storytelling to imagine better futures... I was warned not to even look at the social media comments. I’ve been researching AI for over a decade, and now consult on it, and what I keep seeing is how siloed our information and opinions have become because of social media. People are reacting to very real concerns, but often without the bigger picture. And those concerns are 100% valid: data centers, environmental costs, job loss, LLM addiction, regulation. But at the highest levels of government, AI is being treated as intelligence infrastructure - something the US and China are racing to build because it will underpin every part of the economy and the military. That’s why I think it’s so important that more people, especially women, really understand this technology. This feels like the last window to get a seat at the table while the rules are still being shaped (policies need to be on the ballot!) For anyone wanting a good entry point into the bigger global picture, I’d recommend Mustafa Suleyman’s 'The Coming Wave'. Thanks again for the post. I’ve been a long-time reader and I’m looking forward to your app.