Jenna Ortega Reveals Why She Deleted Twitter, Offers Views on AI
Jenna Ortega learned the hard way that artificial intelligence can be used for good and evil.
In a new interview with The New York Times, the actor, 21, opened up about a disturbing online encounter she had as a teen and explains how it shaped her view of AI and inspired her to shut down her Twitter, now known as X, account.
When asked what she thinks about AI, the 21-year-old didn't mince her words.
“I hate A.I., “ she said. “I mean, here’s the thing: A.I. could be used for incredible things. 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 “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” star went on to explain that she saw firsthand how people can use AI to harm or intimidate others.
“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. It’s terrifying. It’s corrupt. It’s wrong,” she said.
“You saw A.I.-generated images of you as a child? Like pornographic ones?” the interviewer then asked.
“Yes, of course,” Ortega replied.
The actor then explained that the first direct message she ever opened when she was 12 was an “unsolicited photo of a man’s genitals.” She said this was “just the beginning of what was to come.”
Like many actors, the young star started her social media account to grow her following as she built her career. Two or three years later, she shut her account down because she “already was in a confused state” and had started to receive an influx of “absurd images and photos.”
While looking back on how the experience made her feel, Ortega said “it was disgusting.”
“It made me feel bad,” she continued. “It made me feel uncomfortable. Anyway, that’s why I deleted (Twitter), 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.”
Ortega acknowledged that she’s still learning how to protect herself and shared that she tries to avoid using her phone “as much as I can.”
"I’m always walking. 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," she said.
Ortega then compared herself to her mother and said they both “operate out of fear sometimes.”
“I try not to be that way. I think I’ve actually relaxed a lot in recent years because I’ve given up, and I don’t mean that in a sad way. I mean that in the most liberating way possible,” 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.”
Chrissy Callahan
Chrissy Callahan covers a range of topics for TODAY.com, including fashion, beauty, pop culture and food. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, watching bad reality TV and consuming copious amounts of cookie dough.
