Particle 6, the same AI-powered content studio that created Norwood in the first place<\/a>, announced Monday that the character will play the lead role in its upcoming drama, Misaligned. <\/p>\n Misaligned is described as a comedy-drama telling a “coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos.” It’s set in something called the “Tillyverse,” a surreal digital world “located somewhere up in the Cloud.”<\/p>\n “Art will most definitely be imitating life,” Eline van der Velden, CEO & Founder of Particle 6, said in a news release. <\/p>\n But whether that is art people want is another matter. <\/p>\n “This will feel quite chilling to anyone who acts. Best of luck,” entertainment writer and film critic April Neale posted on X Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n “No plans to see this film or cover it … support humans!” independent Hollywood journalist Jeff Sneider added on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n SAG-AFTRA, the union representing actors and other performers in the U.S., has previously criticized Particle 6<\/a> for creating the “synthetic performer.” Dozens of Hollywood actors have also voiced their distaste, and van der Velden has said she received death threats<\/a>. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Norwood’s existence has sparked wider discussions<\/a> about the future of filmmaking, including the appearance of entirely AI-generated movies<\/a> at film festivals and the use of AI to recreate actors after their deaths<\/a>.<\/p>\n “This is exactly what AI companies have been promising, and actor’s unions worried about,” Richard Lachman, a digital media professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and author of\u00a0Digital Wisdom: Searching for Agency in the Age of AI, told CBC News.<\/p>\n “It isn’t unexpected, it’s the next natural step, but it doesn’t necessarily represent an inevitable future,” he added, explaining that he thinks we’ll see two models of AI use in film-making \u2014 one that’s AI-heavy, and one that keeps AI limited to special effects, colour-grading and the technical realm. <\/p>\n WATCH | Tilly Norwood creates Hollywood backlash: AI-generated \u2018actress\u2019 Tilly Norwood draws Hollywood backlash<\/p>\n European AI production company Particle6 says their AI-creation Tilly Norwood has generated a lot of interest, but Hollywood actors including Emily Blunt, Melissa Barrera and Whoopi Goldberg as well as the SAG-AFTRA union have come out against the AI character.’Poor clanker’<\/p>\n SAG-AFTRA has reminded the industry that Norwood is not a real actor. Meanwhile, celebrity profile writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner of The New York Times Magazine<\/a> repeatedly reminds herself that “Tilly is just a computer” in a recent interview with the creation. <\/p>\n Particle 6 appears to be leaning into the same existential discomfort with Misaligned. <\/p>\n The movie is set inside a surreal digital world and follows Tilly as an AI being “with no real body, no childhood and no lived experience of her own \u2026 only access to everyone else’s,” the company said in its news release.<\/p>\n Then things spiral, Particle 6 said, and Tilly becomes “terrifyingly human.”<\/p>\n “Poor clanker,” tech and entertainment website Polygon<\/a> wrote sarcastically in the subheadline of an article Monday about how AI’s most infamous “actor” will “star in a ‘coming-of-age’ movie about how rough it is to be AI.” <\/p>\n Clanker<\/a> is a derogatory term for AI systems and robots.<\/p>\n The movie is currently in early development, with “key collaborators currently being attached,” Particle 6 said in its news release. <\/p>\n The company said it is being designed as a hybrid production combining “traditional” film professionals, such as directors, writers and editors, with AI specialists.<\/p>\n “Reminder that none of this is real,” actor and filmmaker Luke Barnett wrote on X Monday, reminding readers that the company making the movie is the same one that created Norwood.<\/p>\n “Don\u2019t let the headlines scare you, this is all a scam. The industry isn\u2019t ‘hiring Tilly Norwood,'” he said.<\/p>\n CBC News has reached out to SAG-AFTRA for comment on Norwood’s role in Misaligned but has not heard back yet. In September, the union posted a statement<\/a> that “‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor.”<\/p>\n “It\u2019s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers \u2014 without permission or compensation,” the statement reads.<\/p>\n “It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we\u2019ve seen, audiences aren\u2019t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.”<\/p>\n As the Los Angeles Times<\/a> noted, the union has been advocating for stronger AI protections for actors. In June, SAG-AFTRA approved a contract<\/a> it described as “celebrating human performance,” because of additional terms restricting the use of synthetic performers.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759875728_588_default.jpg\")
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Tilly Norwood, an AI creation by Particle 6, is seen in a promotional photo for the movie Misaligned. (Particle 6)Actors union advocates for AI protections<\/p>\n
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