Jul 20, 2026
Actress Anne Hathaway has some opportune words of advice for the many desperate job-seekers out there: please, for goodness’ sake, use your brain instead of resorting to ChatGPT.
The star was sitting down for a recent interview with Hits Radio to promote her newest film, The Devil Wears Prada 2, when she opened up about a baffling experience she had while trying to fill a vacancy on her personal team.
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The role, one that many would consider their ultimate dream job given its proximity to the A-lister and showbiz, should have commanded applicants’ best efforts. But instead, Hathaway was left severely disappointed due to a particular modern phenomenon that has become far too ubiquitous.
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“I was in the process of hiring someone. They were all very nice candidates — and they all sent me thank-you notes,” the actress shared. But the requisite kind, professional gesture of a post-interview letter ended up being overshadowed by one glaring thing: “They had been written by ChatGPT,” she admitted. “They were all the exact same thank-you note.”
While Hathaway found the discovery quite hilarious, her Devil Wears Prada co-star Meryl Streep, who also partook in the chat, sat visibly shocked by the story. “That would be an absolute killer. Nobody on that list gets that job,” Streep said bluntly, calling the modern dependence on AI “just tragic.”
“So many Anne Hathaways that you’re going to apply to — you just can’t write it yourself,” she joked.
AI overuse is cognitively destroying us
Turning to AI for such tasks reflects poorly on the user not just because of the level of laziness, apathy and borderline disrespect it signifies, but also because of what we know about how the regular use of large language models affects our minds.
Studies have shown that spending mere minutes consulting with ChatGPT reduces brain connectivity and memory along with focus and effort, eroding overall critical thinking skills and, over time, leading to cognitive atrophy.
One famous MIT paper on the topic found that “over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.”
“These results raise concerns about the long-term educational implications of LLM reliance and underscore the need for deeper inquiry into AI’s role in learning,” researchers wrote.
Another publication from this year argues, more concerningly, that “habitual AI reliance does not augment analytical reasoning in practice — it displaces it.”
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And, as well-disguised as you may think the AI voice in your ChatGPT-generated cover letter or thank-you note is, there is always the chance of the recipient seeing it for what it really is: someone who is disingenuous, can’t invest the effort and is not worth their time, just like you weren’t worth theirs.
“If you’re out there thinking that you’re getting away with something, there’s a chance that you might be revealing yourself,” Hathaway said of her ordeal.
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Surreptitious use of AI in the workplace
Still, it’s true that knowing your way around various AI systems is a very marketable skill for many jobs in 2026 as companies assess how they can use the tech to improve operations and keep up with competitors.
And it can be hard to balance when and how to employ these types of tools to your advantage, especially when rules surrounding AI use and implementation remain in flux or unclear.
What is clear is that many workers explicitly instructed not to use large language models on the job are doing so anyway, while countless others are using it in thoroughly inappropriate non-work contexts, too — all despite increasing pushback against data centers that should be prompting people to use the tech less.
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Becky Robertson is a senior staff reporter at Moneywise and a lifelong writer. Along with more than a decade covering news at outlets like blogTO and Quill & Quire, she's attended writing residencies around the world. With 33 countries visited, she finds travel to be among her greatest inspirations.
