Jenna Ortega Reveals that AI-Generated Images are the Reason for Deleting Her X Account
Social media could become an unsettling experience for some as Jenna Ortega recalled her time on a social platform X that forced her to delete her account.
The 21-year-old Wednesday star opened up about her feelings about AI and social media on the latest episode of The Interview podcast with The New York Times, released on August 24. She highlighted the negative impact she has seen with those tools as an actress.
Jenna Ortega will star in “Klara and the Sun,” an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel of the same name in which she will play the role of Klara, an artificial intelligence.
Concerning that topic, the host asked Jenna Ortega what she thought of AI.
To which the Beetle Juice 2 actress said that she hates it. She added that AI could be used to do amazing things, referencing some news stories on the internet that said AI can be used to detect breast cancer before it starts to metastasize. It’s unbelievable that people are giving out information like that.
“Did I like being 14 and creating a Twitter account because I was supposed to and seeing dirty edited content of myself as a kid?” the actress recounts as she weighs in on the dangers of the rise of AI in the age of social media. “No. It’s scary. It’s corrupt. It’s wrong.”
Jenna Ortega added that she has seen AI-generated photos of herself as a child, including some of a pornographic nature, noting that one of the first direct messages she opened on the social media platform featured an “unsolicited photo of a man’s genitals.”
“And that was just the beginning of what was to come,” she told host Lulu Garcia-Navarro. Ortega said she had previously been told that having an account on the platform was something she “had to do” to build her “image.”
But she ended up deactivating her account on X due to what she called an “influx” of messages following the release of the hit Netflix series “Wednesday.”
“These absurd images and photos, and I was already confused that I just deleted them,” she said.
“I would make political statements or, just personal, or just talk about excitement for jobs, and then I would be greeted with these things. And it was just disgusting and it made me feel bad. It made me feel uncomfortable,” Jenna Ortega said. Also, read – “ONE PIECE SEASON 2″ Update: Bridgerton Star Charithra Chandran to Join Future Pirate King
Jenna Ortega wasn’t the first celebrity to fall victim to an explicit AI-generated image
In January, pop icon Taylor Swift fell victim to explicit AI-generated images. Millions of people found AI-generated fake sexually explicit images of Taylor Swift on social media.
The sexually explicit images of Swift were fabricated using an AI tool to convert text into an image. Some of the images were shared on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The White House press secretary said at the time that they were “alarmed” by what happened to Swift online and that Congress “should take legislative action.”
“We are alarmed by the reports of the… circulation of images that you just exposed, of fake images to be exact, and it is alarming,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Jean-Pierre highlighted some of the actions the administration has taken on these issues, including the launch of a task force to address online harassment and abuse and the Justice Department’s launch of the first 24/7 national helpline for survivors of image-based sexual abuse.
And the White House is not alone: outraged fans were shocked to discover that there is no federal law in the US that prevents or deters anyone from creating and sharing non-consensual deepfake images.