Reese Witherspoon says Hollywood should embrace artificial intelligence
During a “Morning Show” panel at PaleyFest LA on Friday, Reese Witherspoon said it’s “probably a good thing” that studios are producing fewer TV shows following the dual SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.
“Post-strike, what I’m seeing now, I think from both the buy and sell side of it, is that part of the strike was a reset for these unprofitable studios and streaming services, and an opportunity for them,” explained Witherspoon, a media entrepreneur as co-founder of Hello Sunshine. “They’re resizing, reworking, and cutting costs. “So we’ll probably see less stuff — which is probably a good thing, right? It was chaos. It was a flea market. We can slow down a little. “But there will be more intention around it, and it will be a little harder.”
Witherspoon was speaking as part of a “The Morning Show” panel moderated by Kara Swisher when she was asked about the state of the media today. She began by saying that the landscape is “changing rapidly” and that “the ability to know in advance what the audience is doing and watching and where is a full-time, non-stop job.”
“You’re constantly competing for eyeballs, social media, YouTube, all of that. I think young people are consuming a lot more media on social media than they do traditionally — they’re not going to go to movie theaters anymore. My kids don’t go to movies anymore. “
She added that live broadcasting had dominated the media for years, but things were starting to change again. “Live streaming, for example, was the big thing for three or four years, and then it became this static content that never ended. You could literally sell anything. Now it’s not that anymore.”
Witherspoon sat next to her co-star and producing partner Jennifer Aniston, who agreed that content streams can “slow down,” and then reflected on how the star-making power of a successful project has also changed in Hollywood today.
“I’m really worried and I wonder what the world is like for artists? I mean, are careers like ours possible again? Are there opportunities for people to really stand out as stars that don’t have data transparency? How do we even know if something went well or not?” Is it done well?
While the actress credited Netflix with providing some transparency regarding how a movie or show performed, Witherspoon added, “They know it and they’re talking about it.” But others don’t. It is difficult as an actor how to negotiate. As a producer, how do you market? If you don’t know where you sit in the landscape, how do you estimate the value of something?
She continued: “You rely on independent sources.” “You have some analytics companies — Parrot, Nielsen — that are trying to do more to understand who’s watching what’s being streamed online. But there are real amounts of data as well. They’ve just put a lock on it.”
The lengthy conversation, which also included “Morning Show” stars Mark Duplass, Karen Bateman, Nicole Beharie, Tig Notaro and Nestor Carbonell with showrunner Charlotte Stoudt and actors Michael Ellenberg and Mimi Leder, culminated in a question about another key part of the strike negotiations. :Using artificial intelligence.
Witherspoon said that in her opinion, artificial intelligence should be embraced. “I think AI won’t come to your job – people who know how to use AI will come to your job. So learn about it.”
She continued: “It should be a tool on which we build our creativity and our humanity and our ethics… And I would say it’s important for women and people of color and people who are different sometimes in those developmental spaces, they really need to get in there because we need to represent our consciousness… Let’s not We’re afraid of it. Let’s dig in. Let’s lean in.
