Jenna Ortega voices opinions on AI in cinema, “a computer has no soul”

“Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega has voiced her opinion on AI in film at the Marrakech Film Festival. Ortega spoke of the nuances of AI in cinema and stated that she is “terrified” of “deep uncertainty.”

While serving on the panel at the Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco, Jenna Ortega was asked about AI in film at the press conference on Saturday morning.

Alongside Parasite filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, Ortega shared insights and expressed her concerns about the proliferation of such technology in the art of filmmaking.

“We just always take things too far, and I think it’s very easy to be terrified – I know I am – of deep uncertainty,” said Ortega when examining humankind's treatment of new technology throughout history.

Ortega acknowledged that we’ve “kind of…opened Pandora’s box” when it comes to using AI.

The Wednesday star seems to be suggesting that by using AI, humankind has unlocked a range of evils and miseries that we’re unable to control.

AI has been criticized in the media for various reasons. For example, ChatGPT maker OpenAI has been under fire in recent months over ChatGPT-related suicides.

With new technology, there are a lot of kinks to be worked out, which tends to be extremely chaotic and messy.

However, Ortega suggests that AI, despite its faults, could usher in a new era for artists to speak their mind and explore new avenues.

“In these difficult and confusing times, oftentimes it pushes the artist to speak out more, to do more,” Ortega said.

The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice actor said that there’s also “beauty in difficulty,” and there’s “beauty in mistakes” which no computer can replicate.

“A computer has no soul,” she reportedly said as per Variety.

Since the release of OpenAI’s Sora last year, Hollywood has been battling against AI infiltrating the sacred space of modern cinema.

Actors have been fighting vehemently against Tilly Norwood, an AI bot seeking to break into Hollywood, alongside AI giants like OpenAI, which once allowed users to create deepfake versions of famous celebrities, such as Scarlett Johansson, without their consent.

Johansson actually warned the industry of a “1000-foot AI wave” that was set for Hollywood following a surge in non-consensual deepfake images.

While industry figureheads have been campaigning against the use of AI in cinema, other directors have embraced it.

Radu Jude, a provocative film director, created his own iteration of the cult classic Dracula using artificial intelligence.

Jude told Slant that while he leaves the “real” directors to lament about AI, he sees it as just another tool.

The provocateur decided to incorporate AI into the filmmaking process, which ultimately made the three-hour-long feature more dynamic, according to Cybernews's review of Dracula.