Jenna Ortega understands — and shares — the growing concern about the use of AI in creative work. While speaking at the Marrakech Film Festival Saturday, Ortega noted, “It’s very easy to be terrified,” and told reporters, “A computer has no soul.”
After admitting she is also worried about the present and future use of AI technology in film, Ortega said that she hopes the rise of the technology could push artists to create more.
“In these difficult and confusing times, oftentimes it pushes the artist to speak out more, to do more, for there to be this new awakening and passion and protection and I want to assume and hope that that’s the case,” Ortega explained.
“But there’s certain things that AI just isn’t able to replicate. There’s beauty in difficulty and there’s beauty in mistakes, and a computer can’t do that. A computer has no soul.”
The actress also hopes AI “comes to a point where it becomes sort of mental junk food and we feel sick and we don’t know why. I think, as terrible as it is to say, sometimes audiences need to be deprived of something in order to appreciate something again.”
Ortega, who is serving on the jury of the film festival, was joined by filmmakers Bong Joon Ho and Celine Song, who each expressed their own frustrations with AI.
“My personal answer is I’m going to organize a military squad where their mission is to destroy AI all over the world,” Bong said, while Song added, “To quote Guillermo del Toro, who’s going to be here at this festival soon, ‘F–k AI.”
