Hollywood performers union condemns AI-generated ‘actress’ Tilly Norwood

The recent debut of an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated “actress” named Tilly Norwood, and its producer’s boasts of interest from studio executives, sparked a backlash on Sept 30 from the SAG-Aftra actors union, condemning the replacement of human performers with “synthetics”.

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The Hollywood buzz around Norwood, introduced on Sept 27 at a film industry conference in Zurich, Switzerland, and the union’s scathing reaction reflected the dread many in the creative community feel about the intersection of Al and show business.

Norwood’s official launch consisted of a 20-second appearance of the photo-real character - a 20-something fictional ingenue bearing no particular resemblance to any real celebrity — in a brief video parody about making an AI-generated television show.

Dutch actor-producer Eline Van der Velden, whose London-based Al production studio Particle6 created Norwood, said during her presentation at the Zurich Summit the project was starting to turn heads.

After months of facing boardroom scepticism, talent agents were starting to tell her, “We need to do something with you guys’, Hollywood trade paper Variety quoted her as saying. She said an announcement of a first-of-its-kind talent agency deal was a few months away, Variety reported.