Jenna Ortega finally opens up about why she is not on X.
There’s no denying that the rise of technology has resulted in countless benefits for humanity. Whether it’s the betterment of medicine or breaking down barriers that once seemed impossible, technology’s advancement has been a great help. However, there is always a sinister side to everything as every good thing always ends up being misused after it falls into the wrong hands.
Particularly talking about the rampant growth in AI-generated images and deepfakes, celebrities seem to have gotten the short end of the string with their photos available publicly for wrongdoers to use as they wish. Jenna Ortega has recently opened up about falling victim to this scam which led to her deleting her former Twitter account for good.
Jenna Ortega on Why She Deleted her Social Media Account
It’s 2024 and you will rarely find someone in the younger generations who is not on X, though, there are a few who have steered clear of the app and Jenna Ortega happens to be one of them. However, the reason behind her abandonment of the social media platform is heartbreaking.
Talking to The New York Times, Ortega was asked about her true feelings on AI. She stated that she hated AI, keeping its obvious benefits aside. The Wednesday actress then went on to reveal that she couldn’t stand seeing her inappropriate photos online which people created using artificial intelligence.
Ortega said,
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 confirmed that the edited content with her face on Twitter was p*rnographic in nature. In fact, the very first DM she got on the platform was a disturbing and extremely inappropriate photo of a man’s genitals. Despite this, she kept using the account as she was told to but ended up giving up 2-3 years ago because of the AI images of her.
One of the first — actually the first D.M. 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. I used to have that Twitter account and I was told that, Oh, you got to do it, you got to build your image. I ended up deleting it about two, three years ago because the influx after the show had come out — these absurd images and photos, and I already was in a confused state that I just deleted it.
Talking about just how disturbing it all was, Ortega admitted that she felt disgusting and uncomfortable to the point that she had no other choice but to delete her account for good.
Jenna Ortega Isn’t the Only Celebrity Facing the Dark Effects of AI
Unfortunately, there are too many incidents of deep fakes and AI going around on the internet to count. Not only celebrities, but regular people also find themselves sucked up in this tornado which puts their mental health at extreme risk.
As for celebrities, there are many who have been affected by it in one way or the other. Starting with Scarlett Johansson, she and her team were absolutely furious when OpenAI developed a personal assistant voice that resembled the actress’.
As it turned out, OpenAI CEO had previously asked Johansson to use her voice as a digital assistant, insisting that it could be “comforting.” Of course, she declined the offer. Despite her red signal, the company went ahead and did it anyway, at least unofficially. Johansson stated (via NPR),
I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference.
Taylor Swift, who is currently riding the high waves of the Eras Tour, is also a victim of AI’s misuse. Earlier this year, Swift’s name was mentioned widely in headlines – not for her work, but because of the s-xually explicit AI-generated images that were going viral.
As per The Verge, the inappropriate photos were circulated on X and received over 45 million views. While X took down the account and the photos after 17 hours, you have to admit that it had already caused a ton of damage to the singer’s name.
Things like this have become rampant in the industry. While there seems to be no way to really stop this, we must play our part in the conundrum by not believing everything we see online and refusing to share it forward.
