Rashida Jones, best known for her appearances in sitcoms like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” sat down with the New Yorker recently to talk about her upcoming Apple TV+ show, which involves an artificial intelligence. Jones talks about the common comparison between emerging AI and Gutenberg’s printing press. People have always feared the disruption wrought by new technology, so why should we be afraid to embrace AI? However, Jones notes that AI is a completely different beast than a collection of metal keys and splotches of ink. She said in the interview,

But the printing press never learned stuff that we didn’t teach it. That’s the part that I think is scary. Much like the Internet, it’s going to be the Wild West, and at some point it’s going to be destructive enough that it’s going to have to be pulled back into some sort of consent-based operation. I don’t know how they’ll do that. It does feel like the darkest people are in charge of the Internet now — everything from biowarfare to the dark Web. I have always been obsessed with stories about growing technology and the fear of technology.

-Michael Shulman, Rashida Jones Wonders What Makes Us Human | The New Yorker

The copyright activists will be happy to see her mention of a “consent-based” approach. Much of the material that AI scrapes is under copyright protection, compelling artists, writers, and photographers to take legal action against Big AI. If AI isn’t able to scrape copyrighted content off of the web, though, its range of raw material to draw from will be more limited.

As an actress herself, Jones might lean a little more sympathetically toward those whose livelihoods are more at stake by the threat of algorithmic copycats.

Jones was also asked about the changing television world, and how TV studios are trying to adapt to the modern attention span. Today, shows are trying to create shows that are intended to almost be watched in the background while viewers scroll on their cell phones. Jones comments,

 Listen, phones are addictive. They are created to engage us. They are created to modify our behavior to keep coming back. We all know that. But now everything’s pressed together. You don’t go sit in a dark movie theatre and hold somebody’s hand and eat popcorn. I love that, but we’re struggling to have that be the centerpiece of the business now. And I think the problem is that the people in charge don’t really care about that sticky factor the way that they should. But I also can say that a show like this — it’s original, it’s weird, it’s its own universe — can still exist.

Whenever my friends and I get to together to watch a movie, I’ll generally look over to find just about everyone scrolling through social media instead of actually watching the TV screen. It’s hard for me nowadays to go two hours without checking for texts and emails. That’s the sad reality the modern entertainment industry has to cope with. Cultural commentator Ted Gioia noted that we’re now living in a dopamine culture. We no longer talk about mainstream entertainment swallowing art. Now, distraction is swallowing both entertainment and art. These days, we’re losing the capacity just to sit and watch a TV show without the phone. Nonetheless, actors like Rashida Jones think provocative and “weird” programs like her upcoming show are very much still worth producing and are worth watching with focused attention.