The name Tilly Norwood is taking the entertainment world by storm. That’s because Norwood isn’t your average entertainer. She’s actually not even human, but an artificially-generated “actress.” Norwood was created by Eline Van der Velden, the Dutch founder and CEO of the AI production studio Particle 6. Van der Velden introduced Norwood at the Zurich Summit Last Week. There, Van der Velden brought up her interest in looking for entertainment companies to sign Norwood.
News of both Norwood’s presence and Van der Velden’s intentions prompted strong backlash from the entertainment industry. Emily Blunt and Whoopi Goldberg were just a few of the many actors who raised their concerns about characters like Norwood putting human actors out of work and diminishing the importance of human art. The entertainment labor union SAG-AFTRA joined these comments. They released a statement calling Norwood a “replacement of human performers by synthetics.”
Van der Velden responded to the backlash on Norwood’s Instagram page. She wrote that Norwood is “not a replacement for a human being,” but rather, “a piece of art.” This controversy plays a bigger role in the conversation with how artificial intelligence intertwines with our lives—and how far we are willing to let it in. Whether or not Norwood will be accepted into the realm of Hollywood remains to be seen.
From WNUR News, I’m Evelyn Won.
