At this point, you very well may have heard of Tilly Norwood, the "AI actress". This uncanny imitation of a person has made its rounds on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram ever since its reveal on Thursday, Sept. 25, ahead of the Zurich Film Festival's Summit Conference, and first reported by Deadline. But what exactly is this thing, and should we be worried? Is this just an odd one-off creation, or a sign of things to come?
Tilly Norwood was created by Xicoia, a new "AI talent sudio" founded by Eline Van Der Velden. Tilly is a sample, so to speak, of what Xixoia hopes to accomplish; full monetization of entirely digital "people" in the world of Hollywood. These aren't supposed to be just voice models or generative visuals to read out lines, as these AI actor models are designed to have their own personas and idiosyncrasies to further blur the line between them and actual real people. That's the basic SparkNotes of it, which, on paper, may seem like an interesting technological feat, but it does not bode well for creative job sectors overall.
The growth of AI in Hollywood
Acting is not the first piece of Hollywood that AI has begun to encroach upon. In case you don't remember, in 2023, there was a major writer's strike started in the wake of generative AI text models becoming more popular. Many writers feared for their jobs and livelihoods being taken from them and being replaced by AI. While the strike ended after a whopping 143 days, which did effectively delay several projects by a seemingly significant amount of time (such as the upcoming Avatar sequels), many in the writing community and observers alike agreed that not enough protections were put in place to protect writers' jobs from AI.
Similarly, fears have begun to crop up rapidly about generative visuals being used to replace visual effect artists. There are very real fears about artificial intelligence replacing people in their jobs.
Studios aren't necessarily transparent about their usage of AI either. For example, a quick trailer for the movie Weapons drew criticism for what appeared to be AI-assisted animation. While whether or not this is true remains to be seen (the video is below so you can make up your own mind), the silence from the studio was seen as more evidence to the fact by several people online. Many would prefer if companies would delineate whether or not any piece of media uses AI, but these companies often avoid doing so for plausible deniability.
Does the current intention matter when it comes to AI?
In the face of backlash to Tilly's reveal, Xicoia has sworn up and down that this is not meant to be a replacement of human actors, rather a creative tool to be used by filmmakers. However, creators of tools rarely ever define how they'll be used beyond their intended purposes.
Dynamite was solely created for mining, after all, but we all know it's been used for far worse than that. Whether or not AI is used to fully replace actors frankly isn't up to Xicoia, but rather those employing it.
And unfortunately, no matter how much backlash something like this may receive, if it makes money, it's going to continue to be used. It's rather cynical viewpoint, but it's entirely true. Very rarely do companies that exist at the magnitude of movie studios prioritize the overall morality of something over pure cash influx.
It's impossible to say at this point if AI models like Tilly will entirely replace human actors, but it's easy to be pessimistic about it. But in the coming days, as we see AI being used more and more in creative spaces like this, it's important to remember that if you fundamentally disagree with it, do not give the companies responsible for it your money. Your wallets speak louder than your words in this case.
Do not buy movie tickets to films that star Tilly Norwood or cite anything of the like. Encourage others to do so as well. The only way to tell these companies what they're doing is immoral for stealing jobs is to have them lose money off their anti-human business ventures.
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