Creator defends AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood after feature film backlash

Tilly Norwood, a computer-generated 'actress', is set to star in the feature-length film 'Misaligned.'

LONDON - The founder of the studio behind AI “actor” Tilly Norwood has defended the character amid backlash from parts of the entertainment industry, saying she aims to spark debate and showcase possibilities rather than replace human performers.

“Tilly was made to be a talking point,” said Dutch actor-producer Eline van der Velden, who founded London-based AI production studio Particle6 in 2015. “I’m glad that she’s entertaining people, whether it’s positively or negatively.”

Criticism has intensified after Particle6 announced this month that Tilly Norwood would lead a feature film, “Misaligned.” Set in a digital realm called the “Tillyverse,” the comedy-drama follows an AI being “with no real body, no childhood and no lived experience.”

The project is in early development. Particle6’s tools can currently only generate up to 30 seconds of video, but van der Velden said she hopes to complete it within 12 months.

She rejected critics’ claims that her work will cut actors out. “People think, just because AI is here, all the traditional stuff is going to go away,” she said. “Just because photography is here, doesn’t mean we don’t paint anymore.”

After Particle6 introduced Tilly Norwood at a Zurich film industry conference in September, SAG-AFTRA, the U.S. union representing about 160,000 performers and other media workers, condemned replacing humans with “synthetics.” It also warned that AI characters may be built on systems trained on performers’ work without permission or compensation.

Van der Velden said Tilly Norwood was built with publicly available tools, acknowledging limited visibility into their training data. “I think we just have to accept that it’s been trained on all of us,” she said. “What’s important going forward is a strong AI policy.”

She added that Particle6 bars uploading copyrighted content to its systems without consent and forbids copyrighted trademark references in prompts.

Particle6 is working with a number of “very well-known Hollywood directors, writers, actors” to teach them how to use AI. Their identities are being kept private because of potential backlash, van der Velden said.

She rejected claims audiences won’t empathize with an AI actor. “We’ve empathized with animated and all sorts of made-up characters,” she said. “It’s just a storytelling vehicle.”

Particle6 has increased its workforce six-fold in the past six months, and plans to build “a whole roster of characters.”

“I hope to create lots of amazing jobs for creatives,” van der Velden said.

Reporting by Francesca HalliwellEditing by Nick Zieminski