We are now seeing the girlbossification of AI as famous women try to convince other women that adopting the technology isn’t just the best thing they can do for their careers — it’s the only way to survive.
In mid-April, Reese Witherspoon took to Instagram to deliver a message: It’s time to start using AI. While standing in her kitchen, blending a smoothie, she told her 30 million followers she was shocked to discover only three of the ten women in her book club said they had used the technology. Even though women’s jobs are three times more likely to be replaced by AI than men’s are, she pointed out, so far men are more likely to embrace it.
“You cannot be left behind when it comes to using technology that is shaping the way that work is evolving,” author Mel Robbins said in a Reel announcing her recent partnership with Microsoft Copilot. Meanwhile, Sheryl Sandberg says her organization will now focus on closing the so-called “AI gender gap” with the help of a newly appointed 25-year-old CEO who will be “making sure that women harness the power of AI to further their careers.”
The most common response to this kind of evangelizing has been pure annoyance. “Reese Witherspoon is trying to tell us, ‘Hey, women, get down with your own subjugation,” one commenter said. “Shilling for the technocrat bros in late stage capitalism under the guise of feminism is beyond insulting. It’s vile.” Telling women they’ll be left behind if they don’t adopt AI ASAP was just fearmongering, others said, designed to empty people’s wallets before they could second-guess what they were buying.
Angelina Chapin reports on the famous women who claim that AI use is empowering — and the many women calling bullshit on the idea:
nymag.visitlink.me/Bq2CzX