Emily Blunt among Hollywood stars outraged over ‘AI actor’ Tilly Norwood

BBC:

Hollywood is not rolling out the red carpet for Tilly Norwood – an “AI actor” that has been causing a stir after its Dutch creators said the synthetic performer is in talks with talent agencies.

Norwood could be mistaken for a young, aspiring actress when one glances at her social media. The brunette poses for photos and showcases a fully AI-generated comedy sketch, where she is described as having “girl next door vibes.”

“I may be AI, but I’m feeling very real emotions right now,” Tilly’s creators wrote on her page. “I am so excited for what’s coming next!”

Hollywood’s powerful actors union has condemned the creation, along with A-list stars like Emily Blunt, Natasha Lyonne and Whoopi Goldberg.

Norwood “is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers,” the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, said 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,” the union said.

The AI actor was created by Dutch actor and comedian Eline Van der Velden who reportedly said she wanted Norwood to become the “next Scarlett Johansson”. The BBC has reached out to Van der Velden and her company, Particle6.

Norwood’s Instagram page includes headshots from faux filming tests and an advertisement spoofing programs on the BBC, including being superimposed on the often-star-studded couch on BBC’s The Graham Norton Show.

Amid the anger and backlash in Hollywood, the Dutch creator posted on Tilly’s Instagram page to say that the creation is “not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art”.

“Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance,” Van der Velden wrote, adding such creations should be judged “as part of their own genre” rather than compared to human actors.