Hollywood star Ashley Judd recently found herself nodding along with an admittedly strange bedfellow at a recent “pro-human” conference on the future of artificial intelligence.
The actress joined Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), longtime MAGA mouthpiece Steve Bannon, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt and others Tuesday in Washington to discuss the need for government regulation of AI technology, and Judd told CNN's Pamela Brown that she agreed with Bannon despite his past mockery of her.
"Well, of course, Mr. Bannon,when I was going to run against [Mitch] McConnell, did the silly videoof me like I was an airhead withall this nonsense coming out ofmy head and I'm like, 'Y'all cometake my class at Harvard, you might learn something,'" Judd said. "You know,they're just so self-important."
Bannon railed against tech oligarchs and called for universities to reject Chinese students to protect American AI research, while Sanders argued AI would not discriminate based on borders or nationality, but Judd is more concerned about the tech being used as another tool to abuse women and girls.
"I agreewith them," she said, "and it's also takinga look at male demand, like, whatis the content, and it's maledemand for sexualized violence.That is the content, and so Iwant to make sure that wecontinue to discuss masculinityin healing the male psyche aspart of the conversation. Ithink they're totally right, butI would also add to the senator,women's and children's livesare changed every day by malesexualized violence, and this isjust an acceleration andamplification of it."
President Donald Trump has rejected a need for further regulation of AI development, which even some tech leaders have argued is necessary, but Judd dismissed his claims that the dangers posed by the technology were simply a hoax.
"It's so silly," Judd said. "There'snothing to say. It's silly toengage with nonsense, andthat's a kind of crazy-makingto try to make sense out ofsomething that doesn't makesense."