Jennifer Love Hewitt has opened up about confronting AI on the latest episode of 9-1-1.
In the episode titled War, the actress plays both Maddie and a rogue artificial intelligence operator named Sara. While the AI, designed to manage calls faster, initially seems like a game changer for the Los Angeles call center, the system later starts making dangerous decisions on its own.
Additionally, AI started using the voice of Hewitt’s character Maddie, which she said gave her serious M3GAN vibes, referencing the popular horror movie.
“It was really funny just being mad at a USB stick,” Hewitt said.
Of the filming experience, Hewitt said, “It was quite funny because Sara obviously deals with things so differently than Maddie.”
“So a lot of things, Sara does something, Maddie interrupts her, or Maddie does something and Sara interrupts her. And then I’m yelling at myself as Sara, but I’m Maddie. And then I had to take down both Sara and Maddie. So it was very confusing, but it was a lot of fun. [Showrunner] Tim [Minear] I like to give me challenges,” Hewitt added.
Hewitt compared the experience to the horror movie M3GAN, saying, “She’s caught off guard. She didn’t know this Sara AI person was coming. And then it has her voice, which is even scarier because it almost feels like an M3GAN-esque situation where it’s like, ‘Girl, you better not have my voice.'”
It is pertinent to mention that Jennifer Love Hewitt also admitted that the whole conversation about replacing humans with AI is very important and also ‘a very scary conversation’.
He added: “On the one hand, there are really talented AI artists doing these incredible things and you have to respect that. On the other hand, you can do really scary things with AI that I don’t know that as a mother I worry about my children.”
“Everything that happens for her in the call center to threaten that safe space for her is big in her world … she ran there in complete danger to her life and found safety at that call center and that should continue for her,” she said.
