When I said the other day that Jeffrey Wright’s new Collider interview was “in-depth,” I meant it was chock-full of candid reflections of his career, as well as astute yet devastating commentary on the world today. One thing I learned from the profile is that Wright earned his undergrad degree in political science, and I think it’s evident that he’s carried that foundation of critical thinking and intellectual curiosity into his life and work, and it’s a big part of why he’s such a damn good actor. All that to say, I simply had to excerpt another section! Previously we covered Wright’s response to the racist backlash over his casting as Commissioner Gordon — who has always been and remains to this day, a fictional comic book character. Today I present to you the Westworld star’s musings on AI and other dominating technology, and the few at the top wielding the power of these systems. He summed up his thoughts neatly: “Westworld was a documentary.”

“Westworld was a documentary,” Wright says flatly when I ask about its relevance today. “I think every day that becomes more and more the case. What Westworld was ultimately centered on was, yes, the technology, but more so its usage and by whom and to what end. It was a show, ultimately, about power and control by the few over the many. That’s the thing that’s most concerning to me — the distillation of power and wealth into the hands of an increasingly small circle of individuals. That’s super dangerous.”

This is when Wright really leans in, and it’s difficult not to just nod along as he spits out some hard truths. “I find it interesting and also concerning, too, the ways in which there’s an overlap between the creeping political authoritarianism that we see not only in our country, but globally, with the kind of authoritarian intent that’s built inside the companies that are producing these technologies,” he says, noting how technology is often bent in service of political autocracy. “It’s really fascinating and alarming. I think the most alarming aspect of it is the power of the technology.”

Comparing this new era to the Industrial Revolution, Wright articulates how this “level of disruption… is like something we’ve never seen before,” particularly our obsessions. “The ways in which we’re increasingly addicted to it are super frightening,” he says, equating that addictive element to historically revolutionary resources like sugar, tobacco, and oil, which led to further control and manipulation. “It’s all leading me to want to be as kind of analog-centric as I possibly can,” he says, admitting to reading as a means to escape the disorienting effect of a life driven by the algorithm. “We were sold this idea of this great information age that was dawning upon us… I think it’s bullsh-t, because we’ve heard it before.”

[From Collider]

This man is so f–king smart and it’s impressive — even as he’s spelling out the precise doom we find ourselves in today and how it’s a cyclical part of human history yet still worse in this iteration. I thought this quote in particular hit the nail on the head, how he sees: “an overlap between the creeping political authoritarianism that we see not only in our country, but globally, with the kind of authoritarian intent that’s built inside the companies that are producing these technologies.” Kind of reminds me of another good man who tried to warn us about the tech-industrial complex, mere days before all the world’s tech bros rallied around the puppet they bought to keep their wealth and power over us intact within their small ranks. And what have we seen since that dreadful moment; Elno Musk’s Twitter/X AI chatbot showing its Nazi colors, and Mark Zuckerberg destroying taking over an historic Palo Alto neighborhood to build a mega-compound. Authoritarianism, indeed.

It’s pretty bleak out there, but I’ll join Wright in trying to be as “analog-centric” as possible. Starting, of course, with my devotion to the practice of handwriting over typing.

Jeffrey Wright is shown with his son, Elijah. Photos credit: Andrea Raffin/KIKA Press/Cover Images, Stefano Costantino TTL/Avalon, Stefano Costantino TTL/Avalon, Lionel Guericolas/Avalon