AI Actress Tilly Norwood Sparks Hollywood Outrage

Key Takeaways

The entertainment industry has erupted in controversy following the launch of Xicoia, billed as the world's first artificial intelligence talent studio, and its debut creation, Tilly Norwood.

Van der Velden, founder of AI production studio Particle6, promoted Tilly Norwood at the Zurich Summit last weekend, claiming talent agencies were interested in signing the digital character.

The announcement triggered swift condemnation from Hollywood's most powerful union. In a statement released Tuesday, the Screen Actors Guild said that creativity is and should remain human-centered, with the union opposing the replacement of human performers by synthetics.

The guild's statement emphasized: "To be clear, 'Tilly Norwood' is not an actor, it's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers without permission or compensation.

It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we've seen, audiences aren't interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience."

A-List actors voice concerns

Emily Blunt expressed shock when shown an image of Norwood during a Variety podcast interview, exclaiming, "No, are you serious? That's an AI? Good Lord, we're screwed.

That is really, really scary. Come on, agencies, don't do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection."

Whoopi Goldberg stated on "The View" that AI-generated actors have an unfair advantage over human actors, saying: "You are suddenly up against something that's been generated with 5,000 other actors ... so it's a little bit of an unfair advantage."

Melissa Barrera posted on social media: "Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$. How gross, read the room."

Marvel star Simu Liu commented sarcastically: "Movies are great, but you know, what would be better is if actual humans didn't play the characters in them, but by AI replicas approximating human emotion."

Creator defends AI character as art

Van der Velden responded to critics on Instagram Sunday, stating: "To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my AI character, Tilly Norwood, she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work, a piece of art. Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity."

She added, "I see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool, a new paintbrush. Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories.

I'm an actor myself, and nothing, certainly not an AI character, can take away the craft or joy of human performance."

Van der Velden also argued that AI characters should be judged as their own genre, stating: "Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftsmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance."

Union warns studios of contractual obligations

SAG-AFTRA's statement concluded with a warning to producers: "Signatory producers should be aware that they may not use synthetic performers without complying with our contractual obligations, which require notice and bargaining whenever a synthetic performer is going to be used."

The issue of artificial intelligence was a major bargaining point in the lengthy SAG-AFTRA strike that concluded in late 2023, which resulted in safeguards to protect actors' likenesses and performances from AI use.

A yearlong strike by video game actors also centered on AI protections, with actors approving a new contract in July that mandates employers obtain written permission to create digital replicas.

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