{"id":53735,"date":"2025-10-03T17:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T17:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/53735\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T17:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T17:18:09","slug":"not-surprised-the-first-major-ai-actor-is-a-young-woman-they-can-fully-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/53735\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not surprised the first major AI actor is a young woman they can fully control\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several talent agents are interested in signing Tilly Norwood, according to Deadline. Problem is, Tilly Norwood isn\u2019t a real person. She\u2019s an AI creation from Eline Van der Velden<\/a>, a Dutch comedian and technologist who developed the \u201cactress\u201d with her production company, Particle6<\/a>, through its new AI talent studio offshoot called Xicoia<\/a>. At the Zurich Summit<\/a> this past weekend, Van der Velden said discussions with agencies have progressed significantly since Norwood made her debut in a comedy sketch in July<\/a>, adding an announcement about representation should arrive \u201cin the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n

As you might imagine, though, few Hollywood actors are happy about this potential watershed moment for the entertainment industry. Many actors have disparaged the move on social media, in comments on Deadline\u2019s story<\/a>, as well as through their own social media channels and comments to the press<\/a>. Academy Award nominee Emily Blunt, while promoting her new A24 movie with Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson, The Smashing Machine, was asked to read portions of a report about Tilly Norwood aloud when she stopped by the Variety Awards Circuit podcast, and had a pretty visceral reaction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, are you serious? That\u2019s an AI? Good Lord, we\u2019re screwed,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is really, really scary. Come on, agencies, don\u2019t do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Blunt was told agents want Norwood to be \u201cthe next Scarlett Johansson,\u201d she responded: \u201cBut we already have Scarlett Johansson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creator defends Tilly Norwood as \u2018a piece of art\u2019<\/p>\n

Following the fierce backlash online, particularly from Hollywood actors, Tilly Norwood\u2019s creator, Van der Velden, issued a detailed statement on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo 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\u2014a piece of art,\u201d she wrote. \u201cLike many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van der Velden went on to say AI should not be a replacement for people, and that nothing \u201ccan take away the craft or joy of human performance,\u201d but creating Tilly has been \u201can act of imagination\u201d and \u201crepresents experimentation, not substitution.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cI also believe Al characters should be judged as part of their own genre, on their own merits, rather than compared directly with human actors,\u201d she added. \u201cI hope we can welcome Al as part of the wider artistic family: one more way to express ourselves, alongside theatre, film, painting, music, and countless others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van der Velden turned comments off for that particular Instagram<\/a> post.<\/p>\n

SAG-AFTRA\u2019s response, and the exploitation argument<\/p>\n

The Screen Actors Guild<\/a> and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA<\/a>, which represents about 160,000 actors, creators, and media professionals, issued a pretty blunt statement about Tilly Norwood<\/a> on Tuesday, saying the union is \u201copposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, \u2018Tilly Norwood\u2019 is not an actor, it\u2019s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers\u2014without permission or compensation,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cIt 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

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t solve any \u2018problem\u2019\u2014it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

Beyond protesting the use of computer-generated actors, many in Hollywood are also pointing out how exploitative it feels to have the first so-called AI actor pursued by talent agents be a young woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot surprised that the first major \u2018AI actor\u2019 is a young woman that they can fully control and make do whatever they want,\u201d actor Chelsea Edmundson said in response to Deadline\u2019s post<\/a> about Tilly Norwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her?\u201d asked Mara Wilson, who rose to fame as a child actor in Matilda and Mrs. Doubtfire. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t hire any of them?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShame on whoever is trying to normalize this,\u201d actor Eiza Gonz\u00e1lez wrote in response. \u201cHorrific and terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

For added context, it\u2019s been less than two years since the historically long SAG-AFTRA strike<\/a>, which stretched on for four months before finally ending in November 2023. AI protections were a key point of negotiations.<\/p>\n

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n