The digital world of the first AI “actress” is about to get bigger...
Tilly Norwood, the controversial creation of London-based AI talent studio Xicoia, will soon be a part of a digital universe dubbed the “Tillyverse”.
For those who need a quick refresher on the hellscape unfolding, Norwood is a 100 per cent AI “actress” that was launched last year.
Looking like the unholy fusion of Ana de Armas and Lily Collins, it was brought to life by Dutch actress and tech creator Eline Van der Velden. Her AI studio Xicoia - a spin-off from Van der Velden’s AI production studio Particle6 - is aiming to push digital "talent" into film and television.
“We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that’s the aim of what we’re doing,” Van der Velden told Broadcast International last July – when she soft-launched her creepy creation on various social media accounts.
Upon Norwood’s introduction and Van der Velden stating that she was seeking to secure professional representation (something traditionally reserved for real-life talent), many Hollywood actors, including Emily Blunt, Toni Colette and Natasha Lyonne, spoke out against the soulless bot.
Hollywood’s actors union SAG-AFTRA also responded to the news that talent agents were looking to sign Norwood, saying: “SAG-AFTRA believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centered. The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics.”
The guild added: “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. It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.”
There. All caught up on the digital chicanery.
The newly announced “Tillyverse” is where “Tilly and a new generation of AI characters will live, collaborate and build careers.”
This “rapid expansion” is part of a plan to build intellectual property and change “how talent is created, developed and experienced in the AI era.”
“Tilly Norwood isn’t just an AI character - she’s a personality, a brand, and a future global superstar with a compelling narrative arc,” Van der Velden said in a new press release.
To make matters more delusional – sorry, alarming – Xicoia recently hired former Amazon Prime Video executive Mark Whelan to lead Norwood’s expansion, develop new AI characters and oversee the creation of AI talent commissioned by third parties.
“Mark will help us craft and shape every layer of her world, from her humour, daily life and career choices to how she interacts with fans across various platforms. It all promises to be bold, playful, a little chaotic – and impossible to ignore,” added Van der Velden.
“Becoming a lead architect of the Tillyverse is genuinely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Whelan said in a press release. “AI is evolving at breathtaking speed, and combining cutting-edge tech with ambitious creative thinking means we’re not following an industry playbook at Xicoia - we are writing it.”
The company expects to launch the “Tillyverse” this year – an initiative which continues to deepen anxieties regarding the expansion of AI in the arts, with many fearing that the technology will be (mis)used to replace jobs.
Van der Velden has previously tried to de-escalate the backlash saying that she saw Tilly Norwood not as “a replacement for a human being, but a creative work - a piece of art.” However, and especially following the concerns about the misuse of AI at the heart of 2023 Hollywood SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild strikes, there are still those who feel like the expansion of this digital creation is less artwork and more a reductive way of considering both the work of real human performers and the appetites of audiences.
“Audiences? They care about the story - not whether the star has a pulse,” Van der Velden previously commented in a LinkedIn post, adding: “The age of synthetic actors isn’t ‘coming’ - it’s here.”
Judging by Norwood’s relentlessly rubbish performance in the skit AI Commissioner (see below), that last part is debatable.
Still, Norwood and her "Tillyverse" remains a threat that needs to be taken seriously – especially in a digital world flooded by deepfakes and aggressively pointless AI slop, as well as a real-life world in which the Hollywood establishment will do just about anything to cut costs and shove whatever they deem marketable in audiences’ eyeballs for the sake of profit.
Just think: an ageless and compliant “actress” - based on the stolen looks and performances of young women who are trying to make a career out of their real-life talent - willing to bend to any producer wish with no salary demands? You can bet there are producers out there who are more than willing to consider the bankability and deference of such an identity thief.
Thankfully, the pushback continues, and there are – for now – certain safeguards in place. Earlier this year, SAG-AFTRA reentered contract negotiations with major studios, with the possible proposal of the “Tilly tax” - a fee that studios would have to pay to the union in exchange for using an AI “actor”.
And with any luck, audiences will continue to care about human artistry. In addition to a pulse.
