Jenna Ortega Recalls Seeing ‘Repulsive’ Explicit AI Images of Herself at 14

Jenna Ortega FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

Jenna Ortega’s dislike of artificial intelligence stems from being sent “repulsive” explicit doctored photos of herself as a child star.

“I hate A.I. I mean, here’s the thing: A.I. could be used for incredible things,” Ortega, 21, told The New York Times in an interview published on Saturday, August 24. “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.”

However, there is also a dark side to the technology. She added, “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. It’s disgusting.”

Ortega rose to fame with roles on the likes of Jane the Virgin and Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle when she was a preteen. Around the same time, she received her first-ever DM.

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“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,” Ortega told the newspaper. “I used to have [a] Twitter account and I was told that, ‘Oh, you got to do it, you got to build your image.’”

According to Ortega, she would use her social media pages to make political or personal statements that soon spawned NSFW messages and images in response. Receiving unsolicited photos and doctored images would, and continue to, make Ortega “feel bad.”

“It made me feel uncomfortable,” she recalled. “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.’”

Ortega noted that she eventually deleted her account “about two, three years ago.”

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“The influx after the show had come out,” she said, referring to Netflix hit Wednesday, noting she received more doctored images based on her character. “I already was in a confused state that I just deleted it.”

Ortega subsequently said she’s “learning” to protect herself, whether that’s taking time to avoid her phone or giving herself the space to 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, detailing the pressures of living in a public forum. “It feels scary regardless. … 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.”