Ignoring her time in The Net, Sandra Bullock thinks we need to make peace with our AI overlords

The star of Practical Magic believes we must "lean into" the impractical magic of artificial intelligence.

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  April 17, 2026 | 12:25pm
Credit: Kevin Paul
News News Sandra Bullock
Ignoring her time in The Net, Sandra Bullock thinks we need to make peace with our AI overlords

One would think a woman once haunted by Mozart’s Ghost would be a little more wary of emerging technologies. But Sandra Bullock, who famously made cinema’s first DoorDash order in The Net, has found herself beckoned by the siren song of Silicon Valley yet again. Per Variety, Bullock pulled herself away from her desktop to appear at the CNBC Changemakers summit, for a joint interview opposite Warner Bros. Pictures co-chair and CEO Pam Abdy, when the topic of AI-generated Practical Magic 2 trailers came up. Trailerslop on YouTube was reportedly a revenue stream for studios, until YouTube shut it down, and Abdy called the practice “not great, but it’s also exciting.” Abdy continued, “That means that there’s a desire for it, and that means that people want to come and play with the movie.”

Bullock agreed, admitting that there were “worse” things that could be done with her image. (We guess she’s not on X, the Everything App.) “It’s here. We have to observe it. We have to understand it. We have to lean into it,” Bullock says. “We have to use it in a really constructive and creative way, make it our friend.” Hastily generated clickbait is probably not the most constructive or creative way to use the technology, but Bullock warns we need to be “incredibly cautious” because there are “people who will use it for evil and not good.” 

AI normalization is sweeping Hollywood, particularly among the Oscar set. Ben Affleck made the surprise announcement that he owned an AI company and was selling it to Netflix to make cheaper movies. His brother, Casey, is trapped in the gray void with Gal Gadot and director Doug Liman, making an AI-heavy movie about the mysterious creator of Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh said that there would be “a lot of AI” in his upcoming movies. 

Also this week, Oscar-winning book club founder Reese Witherspoon posted on Instagram that it was “TIME” to learn AI because the “revolution has begun.” Kerry Washington responded, “THIS,” and Ali Larter wrote, “Yes yes yes!” as Witherspoon’s fans admonished her for supporting a technology that’s currently ravaging the publishing industry, among others. Witherspoon, a frontrunner for this year’s “Fell For It Again Award,” who in 2022 announced that her company, Hello Sunshine, would be turning NFTs into movies and TV shows, has been on this tip for a while. In 2024, she urged women to learn AI because “it’s here to stay, so get used to it,” and again in 2025, saying it’s “so, so important” for women to get on the AI bandwagon. It is interesting how when AI companies seem like they’re on the verge of collapse, when OpenAI is shuttering its Hollywood-killer Sora and Oracle is laying off 30,000 employees due to AI spending, the loudest and most famous boosters come out of the woodwork to say “it’s TIME.”

 
Join the discussion...
Keep scrolling for more great stories.