Jenna Ortega and her 'hatred' for AI

Actor shares why she deleted Twitter at a young age

Jenna Ortega has shared her unsettling experiences with artificial intelligence, shedding light on its darker side. In a recent conversation on The Interview podcast by The New York Times, the Wednesday star reflected on a disturbing incident from her teenage years that pushed her to shut down her Twitter account, now known as X.

Ortega, now 21, recounted the uncomfortable moments she faced online as a young teenager. "I hate AI," she confessed. "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."

The actor, known for her roles in Beetlejuice and Scream VI, elaborated on the pressures she felt to create a social media presence. "I used to have that Twitter account, and I was told that, 'Oh, you got to do it, you got to build your image,'" Ortega explained. However, she eventually deleted it two or three years ago, particularly after the release of Wednesday. The surge of bizarre and inappropriate images left her feeling disoriented and led her to decide, "Oh, I don't need this anymore. So, I dropped it."

The "disgusting" content made her feel "bad" and "uncomfortable," Ortega admitted, which played a significant role in her decision to quit the platform. "I couldn't say anything without seeing something like that," she said. The constant exposure to such disturbing material made her realise that social media was not something she needed in her life.

Ortega is also working on being less self-critical. "I'm really working on not 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. And I don't. And I should. And I try to remind myself of that."