“A Computer Has No Soul”

With the advent of Artificial Intelligence and its potential negative impact, several celebrities have taken a strong stance against it. Joining this battle against machine intelligence, Netflix’s Wednesday star Jenna Ortega also shared her concerns at the ongoing Marrakech Film Festival.

“There is really charm in the human condition… as humans, we have a tendency to always, when you look back at history, take things too far,” she said, addressing the jury press conference, via Deadline. “It’s very easy to be terrified. I know I am in times like this of deep uncertainty. And it kind of feels like we’ve opened up a Pandora’s Box.”

Calling human mistakes “beautiful” and beyond AI’s ability to replicate them, she said humans will never be able to resonate with the machine-generated, soulless work. “There’s certain things that AI just isn’t able to replicate, and yes, there’s beautiful, difficult mistakes, and a computer can’t do that. A computer has no soul, and it’s nothing that we would ever be able to resonate with or relate to.”

She hoped that over time, AI would morph into some sort of “mental junk food” that could tire the audience, reigniting the worth of original human-produced work.

“I don’t want to assume for the audience, but I would hope it gets to a point where it becomes some sort of mental junk food, AI and looking at the screen, and then suddenly we all feel sick, and we don’t know why, and then that one independent filmmaker in their backyard comes out with something, and it releases this new excitement again.”

The 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival opened Friday and runs until December 6, with Parasite filmmaker Bong Joon Ho heading the jury that includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Celine Song, Julia Ducournau, Karim Aïnouz, Hakim Belabbes, and more, with Jenna Ortega serving as the youngest member.

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