Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated young actress who has been stirring things up among human actors who see her as a threat, has the potential to become a global star, at least according to her creator.
AI has slowly been encroaching on virtually every sector of society and the job market, and if you needed more proof that no profession is truly safe, AI-generated actors are getting ready to take on their human counterparts. Artificial intelligence talent studio Xicoia sparked controversy when it started promoting its impressive creation, an AI-generated actress named Tilly Norwood, during the summer. Launched by Dutch technologist Emily Van der Velden as part of her company Particle 6 Productions, Xicoia specializes in AI acting talent, and Tilly is the startup’s first big project. Hollywood talent agents have allegedly been quietly circling Norwood for representation, and Van der Velen believes that the AI actress could one day become as big as Scarlett Johansson.
“We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that’s the aim of what we’re doing,” Emily Van der Velden told Broadcast International. “People are realizing that their creativity doesn’t need to be boxed in by a budget – there are no constraints creatively and that’s why AI can really be a positive.”
Xicoia has slowly been building up Tilly Norwood on social media, constantly posting photos and clips of her in different settings, from dimly-lit thriller scenarios to romance period settings, to show off her versatility, and studios have apparently begun considering the possibility of working with such AI talent. Human actors are obviously not very happy with this development.
“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,” the actors’ guild SAG-AFTRA wrote in a statement. “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. It doesn’t solve any ‘problem’ — it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”
An actress herself, Emily Van der Velden tried to put fellow actors’ minds at ease by saying that she sees “AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool, a new paintbrush,” that opens up new possibilities. However, in a LinkedIn post, she also said that “audiences care about the story, not whether the star has a pulse. Tilly is already attracting interest from talent agencies and fans. The age of synthetic actors isn’t ‘coming’, it’s here.”
AI-powered news anchors, digital models and AI influencers have already been around for years, so an AI-generated actress like Tilly Norwood doesn’t really sound that sci-fi anymore.
