Content warning: This article contains content that may be disturbing to some readers.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star Jenna Ortega has opened up about unpleasant interactions on social media that led to the deletion of her X (formerly Twitter) account.
Ahead of the release of the highly anticipated Beetlejuice sequel and season two of Wednesday, the 21-year-old scream queen spoke to The New York Times about her illustrious career.
During our conversation, Ortega shared the deeply disturbing reasons why she hates artificial intelligence (AI) and how it impacted her as a child star on the internet.
“I hate AI,” she began.
“So AI could potentially be used for incredible things. I think I saw a story the other day about artificial intelligence being able to detect breast cancer four years before it progresses. That’s amazing. Let’s just leave it at that.
“Did you, at 14, create a Twitter account because you had to and enjoy looking at salacious edited content of yourself as a child? No. It’s horrifying. It’s corrupting. It’s wrong.”
(Image by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
Additionally, during a conversation reflecting on navigating the internet as a child actor, Ortega revealed that the first direct message she ever opened was “an unsolicited photo of a man’s genitals” when she was just 12 years old.
“I used to have a Twitter account but people were like, ‘Yeah, you should give it a go and create an image for yourself’. I ended up deleting it a couple of years ago because after the show aired I got inundated with ridiculous images and pictures. It was a mess so I deleted it,” the Wednesday star continued.
“It was gross, it made me feel bad. It made me feel uncomfortable. I just couldn’t say anything without looking at that stuff, so I deleted it. I woke up one day and was like, ‘Oh, I don’t need this anymore,’ so I deleted it.”
This is not the first time a celebrity has been targeted by deepfake porn or AI-based sexually explicit imagery: in June, Australian Jacob Elordi was targeted with numerous non-consensual sexually explicit deepfake videos featuring a 17-year-old girl, and Taylor Swift was also targeted with AI-generated sexually explicit images on X.
(Image credit: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic) (Image credit: Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
It’s not just celebrities who are affected by this technology – ordinary people are also being affected by the non-consensual creation of sexually explicit images by AI.
Recently, Congress passed a bill that would criminalize the sharing of sexually explicit deepfakes without consent.
Under the new law, anyone who shares deepfakes or sexually explicit AI of others without their consent could face seven years in prison.
Image courtesy: Getty Images / Randy Shropshire