Tilly Norwood creator claims AI actors are “more ethical” than humans
The creator of the controversial AI actor, Tilly Norwood, has insisted that AI actors are “more ethical” than human performers.
In a new opinion essay for Variety, Eline van der Velden, the CEO and founder of AI company Particle6 behind the AI actor Tilly Norwood, has reacted against the industry-wide backlash to the creation.
Velden begins by insisting Norwood isn’t just an AI creation; rather, there’s “a real person and a creative human vision behind her.”
She adds, “This is not about replacing real performances, it’s about giving actors new opportunities in this new medium of AI film and TV that’s fast arriving.”
Velden then compares Norwood to the likes of “Andy Serkis as Gollum — he was acting, even though Gollum was digital. The same goes for Zoe Saldaña in Avatar.” Human agency and acting skills are necessary for the AI actor to succeed, she adds.
“This isn’t about replacing human performers, it’s about giving actors the agency to take control of their future,” she writes.
However, after Norwood secured representation, SAG-AFTRA condemned her creation in a statement, which reads, “To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation.”
Resisting this idea, Velden argues the “uncomfortable truth” that AI actors are “more ethical”, as “traditional acting demands that performers put their bodies and sometimes their mental health on the line.”
As such, “An AI actor allows performers to continue working without sacrificing their personal lives or physical limitations.”
Ultimately, Velden writes that the “puppeteer has always been a performer”; in this way, “the soul of the performance still belongs to the human behind it.”
Velden finishes by warning the industry that AI isn’t going anywhere, and it’s hook into the film industry will only deepen. She insists, “AI actors, created and owned by performers, are not the enemy of acting. They are its next evolution.”
On the other side of the debate, more than 700 film industry figures, such as Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson, have signed a new anti-AI campaign which insists that, “Stealing our work is not innovation. It’s not progress. It’s theft – plain and simple.”
Chris Pratt has also hit out at the AI star, sharing, “I heard this Tilly Norwood thing, I think that’s all bullshit. I’ve never seen her in a movie. I don’t know who this bitch is. It’s all fake until it’s something.”
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