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Reese Witherspoon has established herself as a businesswoman committed to feminism. Her media brand Hello Sunshine\u2019s mission<\/a> is to \u201cput women at the center of every story,\u201d and her much-memed quote<\/a> that \u201cwomen\u2019s stories matter\u2014they just matter!\u201d is nearly as recognizable as her roles in Legally Blonde <\/em>and Big Little Lies<\/em>.<\/p>\n But Witherspoon\u2019s latest Instagram post<\/a> has social media questioning that image. The actress encouraged women to get educated about AI, lest they be \u201cleft behind\u201d as the technology comes for their careers.<\/p>\n In her video, Witherspoon described being at a book club with 10 other women and asking them about their AI usage. Of the 10, she said, only three were using artificial intelligence, and only one said she felt like she knew what she was doing. According to Witherspoon, this is a big problem.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing I\u2019ve learned about technology is, if you don\u2019t get a little bit of understanding from the very beginning, it just speeds past you. So you have to have little bits of learning just to keep up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Reese doubled down in the caption, writing: \u201cThe AI revolution has begun, and I need to learn as much as I possibly can about AI and share it with all of you. 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\u2019t want to be left behind. So . . . do you want to learn with me?\u201d<\/p>\n However, Witherspoon\u2019s framing of AI usage as a feminist imperative has been rubbing many of her fans the wrong way.<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t a feminist move, IMO,\u201d wrote one commenter on Instagram. \u201cIt\u2019s submitting to a technology that is devastating to poor communities and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe aren\u2019t being left behind; we are refusing a future that isn\u2019t designed for us,\u201d echoed another. \u201cHow about you use your privilege to resist instead of acting like this is all inevitable?\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time Witherspoon has voiced her support for AI use by women. In an interview with Glamour<\/em><\/a> last September, she said, \u201cIt\u2019s so, so important that women are involved in AI because it will be the future of filmmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n The social media backlash to Witherspoon\u2019s post also follows the businesswoman’s rocky history with trends in technology.<\/p>\n During the non-fungible token (NFT) boom of the early 2020s, Witherspoon was a vocal supporter of the technology, once posting<\/a> that \u201cin the (near) future, every person will have a parallel digital identity. Avatars, crypto wallets, digital goods will be the norm.\u201d Her move into NFTs also had a feminist spin: She promoted the World of Women NFT collection<\/a>, which marketed itself as balancing representation in the NFT space. In 2022, Hello Sunshine even partnered with World of Women to adapt its NFTs into movies and TV shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of course, the NFT bubble popped not long after Witherspoon got involved, leading some social media users to write off her support for AI as more misguided enthusiasm for a fad.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s really good at predicting the future,\u201d one poster joked<\/a>, accompanied by a screenshot of an article about her World of Women partnership.<\/p>\n \u201cDO NOT LISTEN TO THIS LADY. SHE TRIED TO GET YOU TO BUY NFTS,\u201d posted another<\/a>.<\/p>\n Witherspoon’s team declined to comment on the social media backlash.<\/p>\n But if Witherspoon’s history with NFTs already had social media feeling suspicious, her other connections\u2014including to investment company Blackstone\u2014are throwing speculation into overdrive.<\/p>\n Blackstone backs Candle Media, and through Candle, it bought majority shares of Hello Sunshine for more than $500 million in 2021. Blackstone has since become the leading investor in AI data centers, including a $25 billion investment in Pennsylvania\u2019s AI infrastructure last summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now social media users are questioning whether Witherspoon has investments in AI beyond what she\u2019s representing to her fan base. \u201cAnyone pushing you to use AI has their own vested interest in it,\u201d one viral post on X claimed<\/a> in response to Witherspoon\u2019s statement. (There is no evidence that Witherspoon was paid for her post promoting AI.)<\/p>\n \u201cShe has her money invested in it,\u201d alleged another user<\/a>\u2014adding that \u201cwhat really needs to stop\u201d is pandering to underrepresented communities and claiming they need to embrace the technology, \u201cwhen AI is already hurting black and [poor] communities in real time. Just say you care more about money than people’s health and the environment and keep it pushing.\u201d<\/p>\nWitherspoon\u2019s rocky history with tech trends<\/h2>\n