Hollywood is bristling at the arrival of Tilly Norwood, a so-called "AI actor" designed to look and sound like the proverbial girl next door, the BBC reports. Created by Dutch actor and comedian Eline Van der Velden, Norwood has been making the rounds on social media, where she shares AI-generated comedy sketches and slick headshots—complete with quips about "feeling very real emotions."
But the synthetic starlet's growing profile hasn't gone unnoticed by the industry's heavyweights. The actors' union SAG-AFTRA quickly condemned Norwood, calling her "a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers." The union argues that AI creations like Norwood lack the experience and emotion necessary for true acting and could threaten the livelihoods of human performers.
Stars including Emily Blunt, Natasha Lyonne, and Whoopi Goldberg have joined the chorus. Lyonne, who is experimenting with "ethical AI" herself with the aim of making a movie that stars real human actors, called for a boycott of any agency working with Norwood, labeling the project "deeply misguided." Blunt, after seeing a clip of the AI actress, replied, "That's an AI? Good Lord, we're screwed. That is really, really scary." Norwood's creator maintains that the AI is not a replacement for real actors, but rather a digital art piece "not unlike drawing a character, writing a role, or shaping a performance."
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At the Guardian, Stuart Heritage isn't sure this particular actress is a threat, given she's only appeared in one completely AI-generated comedy sketch that hasn't exactly racked up the views, but he notes that the whole idea is still unsettling: "Imagine a creation that is completely pliant to the wishes of directors and producers. No ego. No creative input. No huge salary or unattractive aging to deal with." An expert on the use of AI in media, meanwhile, tells NBC News the whole thing is simply a "gimmick."
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