We’re seeing more and more fake people in our lives, from AI interviewers to social media scammers to automated customer service agents. And now, potentially, we’ll see them on the big screen.
Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated actor, made her debut on July 30 in “AI Commissioner,” a short comedy sketch generated entirely by artificial intelligence. The scenes throughout the short jump abruptly — from an office cubicle to a movie set to a poolside. Curiously, the characters ramble in ways that make little sense, producing the same effect as nodding along to an investment banker discussing macro-driven alpha generation and multi-asset liquidity strategy. If you ask AI to create a comedy sketch, you may get exactly what you asked for, which you soon realize isn’t actually what you wanted.
In the final 30 seconds of the video, Norwood appears: a radiant, smiling brunette, seemingly in her twenties, standing on the red carpet. She has also appeared in mock trailers for action, horror and historical films, demonstrating her broad range. On Instagram, she has amassed tens of thousands of followers, posting videos of her work and ‘behind the scenes’ experiences.
Eline Van der Velden, CEO and founder of the U.K.-based AI production company Particle6, announced the launch of a new AI talent studio, Xicoia, at the Zurich Film Festival. According to Vox, Xicoia is devoted to creating “hyperreal digital stars” for film, television, social media, podcasts and more. The rollout centered on Norwood, the studio’s first creation, who Van der Velden revealed was being eyed by several talent agencies.
How will AI actors like Norwood be used? Presumably, people with nefarious intentions will likely produce exploitative content. Businesspeople may cast her in commercials (what happens, one wonders, when she ends up endorsing two competing brands?). Assuming lawsuits don’t stop these systems from consuming copyrighted material (faces of performers, influencers, models, which will be overused into oblivion), shots that are physically impossible and ethically fraught today could become instantly available. Studios, producers and filmmakers could use AI actors like Norwood — that is, if film industry labor unions let them.
Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the labor union representing actors, answered with a resounding no. On Sept. 30, the organization declared, “SAG-AFTRA believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centered” and that “‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor,” condemning AI training on “countless professional performers – without permissions or compensation.” Producers cannot use synthetic performers without notifying the union and honoring contractual obligations.
Hollywood is no stranger to controversies, but few have sparked such a mix of interest, anxiety, outrage and curiosity as Norwood. Deadline reports that actors such as Melissa Barrera and Kiersey Clemons suggested boycotting agencies that sign her. Mara Wilson questioned why none of the “hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make [Norwood]” could be hired instead.
During a recent “Saturday Night Live” broadcast, Amy Poehler returned to the Studio 8H stage and couldn’t resist poking fun at Hollywood’s newest obsession. “I remember watching the show in the ’70s, sitting in my house in Burlington, Mass., thinking, ‘I wanna be an actress someday, at least until they invent an AI actress who’s funnier and willing to do full frontal,” she said as the audience roared.
Later, Poehler shifted to one of those faux-sincere tones that stand-up comedians use to set up a story before the punch line: “I know it can feel like times are very tough right now, and in some ways they always have been and they always will be, I’ll just say this: If there’s a place that feels like home that you can go back and laugh with your friends, consider yourself lucky, and I do. And to that little AI robot watching TV right now who wants to be on this stage someday, I say to you, ‘Beep boop beep boop,’ which translates to, ‘You’ll never be able to write a joke, you stupid robot.’”
Industry anxiety stems from the knowledge that synthetic content will soon look indistinguishable from live-action footage, upending the recruitment of human talent. Norwood is proof that change is already underway.
Van der Velden has addressed the global backlash on her own and Norwood’s Instagram accounts, insisting that she does not see Norwood as a “replacement for a human being, but a creative work — a piece of art.” She further described Norwood’s creation as “an act of imagination and craftmanship.”
Tilly Norwood may never win an Oscar award, but the team behind her arguably deserves recognition. It is striking to imagine a future in which AI-driven films dominate cinema, and Xicola has offered a trailer of that reality and the firm’s technological prowess. Perhaps Norwood’s debut was precisely that: a marketing stunt designed to draw attention to the studio. And maybe, in reality, she is not the job-snatcher she has been made out to be.
