JENNA Ortega revealed that she’s dealt with an unthinkable side of fame: being sent AI-generated nudes of herself on Twitter, including depictions of her when she was underaged.
Jenna revealed that her dislike of artificial intelligence stems from this “terrifying” experience.
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“I hate AI. I mean, here’s the thing: AI could be used for incredible things,” Jenna, 21, told The New York Times on Saturday.
“I think I saw something the other day where they were saying that artificial intelligence was able to detect breast cancer four years before it progressed. That’s beautiful. Let’s keep it to that.”
The Wednesday actress revealed that she has witnessed the dark side of AI after being sent several inappropriate pictures of herself “as a child.”
“Did I like being 14 and making a Twitter account because I was supposed to and seeing dirty, edited content of me as a child? No,” she told the outlet.
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“It’s terrifying. It’s corrupt. It’s wrong. It’s disgusting.”
Jenna, who gained popularity through shows such as Jane the Virgin, Iron Man 3, and Disney‘s Stuck in the Middle, said she first got an NSFW photo when she was 12.
“The first [direct message] that I ever opened myself when I was 12 was an unsolicited photo of a man’s genitals, and that was just the beginning of what was to come,” Jenna recalled to the outlet.
“I used to have [a] Twitter account and I was told that, ‘Oh, you got to do it, you got to build your image.’”
Jenna said that the images started coming in earnest after she used her profile to make political or personal statements.
According to Jenna, she would “feel bad” every time she got an unsolicited photo or doctored image.
She recalled: “It made me feel uncomfortable.”
“Anyway, that’s why I deleted [my account] because I couldn’t say anything without seeing something like that. So one day I just woke up, and I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t need this anymore. So I dropped it.”
Jenna said that she finally deleted her account “about two, three years ago.”
Jenna said she was spurred even more to delete the account after Wednesday was released on Netflix.
Did I like being 14 and making a Twitter account because I was supposed to and seeing dirty, edited content of me as a child? No.”
Jenna Ortega
According to the actress, much of the content she received at that time was doctored photos of her TV character.
She said: “I already was in a confused state that I just deleted it.”
Since then, Jenna has been attempting to learn how to protect herself and acknowledge her feelings.
“I’m 21, so I can’t be expected to be a philosopher or some almighty thing because, yeah, I’m a 21-year-old kid and I think that’s probably important to remember,” she said to the outlet.
“It feels scary regardless.”
She continued: “It’s a time where you can’t appreciate where you’re at now [when] you’re learning to pay bills for the first time, dealing with taxes [and] being expected to be an adult. [You can’t] not be scared s**tless. That’s just a given.”
Jenna has also stated she has started doing more physical activities.
“I’m always walking,” Jenna said.
“If you’re ever wondering what I’m doing, if my parents are ever wondering, if I’m not at work, or in some sort of meeting, I am outside doing laps. I am in a random garden, I am laying, taking a nap in a field.”
The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star also said that she is trying not to be overly critical of herself.
She said: “I’m really working on not being so self-critical or just killing myself over things that in the grand scheme of the world with the news and things you see, it’s really just not important at all. I should be having so much fun right now.”
“So much fun! And I don’t. And I should. And I try to remind myself of that.”
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