AI ‘actress’ Tilly Norwood condemned by Hollywood actors' union

Sag-Aftra joins stars in criticising character 'trained on the work of countless professional performers'

'I may be AI-generated, but I'm feeling very real emotions right now,' Tilly Norwood said at her launch event. Photo: Tilly Norwood / Instagram

She may look and sound like a movie star, but Tilly Norwood is unequivocally “not an actor”, according to a top Hollywood union.

The AI-generated creation has sparked backlash among unions and stars in Tinseltown in the days since her introduction to the world.

On Tuesday, the Sag-Aftra actors’ union said human performers should not be replaced with “synthetics”, joining a growing list of those who condemn the project, including Natasha Lyonne and Emily Blunt.

Created by London-based AI production studio Particle6, Norwood was introduced on Saturday at a film industry conference in Zurich in a 20-second video parody about making an AI-generated television show.

The character said in a Facebook post: “I may be AI-generated, but I'm feeling very real emotions right now. I am so excited for what's coming next!”

Dutch actor-producer Eline Van der Velden, who created Norwood, said during her presentation at the Zurich Summit the project was starting to turn heads.

She was right.

“To be clear, 'Tilly Norwood' is not an actor,” said Sag-Aftra officials.

“It's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers – without permission or compensation.”

Hollywood actors and writers being replaced by AI-generated characters and scripts was a major issue at the union's most recent round of contract talks with studios and streaming services, Reuters reported.

Sag-Aftra, which represents 160,000 actors, voice artists, stunt performers and other talent, said: “Creativity is, and should remain, human-centred. The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics.”

The parody video, which first appeared in July, actually comprises 16 AI-generated characters in all, but Tilly Norwood was the main star.

Van der Velden said on Instagram that Norwood “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.”

Paradoxically, in an interview in July with Broadcast International, Van der Velden had said: “We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that's the aim of what we're doing.”

Yves Bergquist, director of AI in media at the University of Southern California's Entertainment Technology Centre, called the reaction “nonsense”.

“There is a lot of very understandable nervousness and fear out there about talent being replaced,” he said. “But Scarlett Johansson has a fan base. Scarlett Johansson is a person.”

Lyonne, star of Russian Doll and Orange Is the New Black, called for anyone who works with Norwood to be boycotted.

“Any talent agency that engages in this should be boycotted by all guilds,” said the actress, who is currently working with “ethical AI” to create a feature film that stars real actors.

She called the project “deeply misguided and totally disturbed”.

Blunt told a Variety podcast that the creation was terrifying.