{"id":6477,"date":"2026-04-17T04:36:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T04:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/6477\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T04:36:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T04:36:38","slug":"tilly-norwood-sparks-ai-outcry-at-duffer-bros-school-dodge-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/6477\/","title":{"rendered":"Tilly Norwood Sparks AI Outcry At Duffer Bros School Dodge College"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWelcome to\u00a0Rendering<\/a>, a Deadline column reporting at the intersection of\u00a0AI<\/a>\u00a0and showbiz. Rendering examines how\u00a0artificial intelligence<\/a>\u00a0is disrupting the entertainment industry, taking you inside key battlegrounds and spotlighting change makers wielding the technology for good and ill.\u00a0Got a story about AI? Rendering wants to hear from you: jkanter@deadline.com.<\/p>\n

\n\tDodge College<\/a>, the Chapman University film school that trained Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers<\/a>, has a reputation for attracting Hollywood big beasts. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos regularly graces the college\u2019s lecture halls, while other guest speakers have included Daniel Craig and Dwayne Johnson. But earlier this month, Dodge promoted a talk from an altogether more divisive visitor: Tilly Norwood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe so-called \u201cAI actress\u201d may be little more than a piece of provocative marketing, but her presence has become a vector for existential handwringing about AI in the entertainment business. And she was not welcome on college campus. When Dodge promoted her talk on Instagram earlier this month, the post attracted nearly 1,300 comments, many of which were written by disquieted Dodge students and alumni.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGross and irresponsible,\u201d was the take of one commenter. \u201cWhen is Dodge gonna learn we don\u2019t want AI slop,\u201d another added. \u201cDo better,\u201d chimed a third student. Norwood has been created to revel in this kind of backlash (you can find her happily s**t posting on Instagram despite her creator saying she\u2019ll never replace humans<\/a>), but for the students of Dodge, her arrival signalled something deeper about their place of education and its growing embrace of artificial intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWithin days of plugging Norwood\u2019s talk, Dodge Dean Stephen Galloway \u2014 former executive editor of Deadline\u2019s sister title The Hollywood Reporter \u2014 sent an email to students announcing an \u201cinnovative filmmakers challenge,\u201d through which students will be awarded financial grants for projects that \u201cuse AI\u201d and other new technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGrants totalling $40,000 are available to students who put AI to work with \u201coriginality, inspiration, and creativity.\u201d Galloway thanked \u201cgenerous donors\u201d for supporting the scheme, but did not name them, sparking speculation that those with vested interests in AI could be supporting the filmmakers\u2019 challenge. Chapman University declined to answer our question about the identity of donors.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeak to students at Dodge, and they are not naive about the inevitability of AI \u2014 they accept that they should be learning about the disruptive technology before entering the workplace. But there is a sense that this should be done cautiously, and in the context that AI is killing jobs they would like to occupy. Some do not see this balance in Dodge\u2019s communications \u2014 in fact, one recent graduate tells Deadline\u2019s Rendering column that the promotion of artificial intelligence filmmaking is \u201ctone deafness.\u201d Dodge denies this.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to provide an option to learn about AI, but it\u2019s another thing to incentivise and push students towards something detrimental to meaningful work,\u201d says Wells Goltra, a senior in documentary film. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating to see time, energy, and finances invested in something that does not foster creativity.\u201d Another source, who wished to remain anonymous, put it this way: \u201cIt seems to be spitting in the face of the industry that they are pushing these students into.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is also a sense that encouraging students to machine-generate their filmmaking could actually damage collaboration between departments and disciplines. One former student says Dodge first experienced an AI backlash last year, when the college enhanced pictures of the campus using AI, rather than turning to the animation students in its lecture halls. The illustrated pictures, some of which Deadline has seen, were eventually pulled down from social media.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn response to the concerns, a Chapman University spokesperson says: \u201cWe are taking a thoughtful and deliberate approach to artificial intelligence in our policies and practices inside and outside of the classroom. This includes the formation of interdisciplinary and cross-functional groups across the university to look at the issues, benefits, and potential concerns about AI, as well as the development of a survey that is being distributed to our entire university (faculty, staff, and students) to learn their perspectives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe reality is that AI is already part of our society and is a growing practice in numerous industries. In our pursuit of developing global citizens, we have a duty to expose our students to AI best practices and help them navigate it responsibly and ethically. As a highly creative and innovative university spanning the creative and performing arts and science and technology, we also know that nothing can equal the creativity and ingenuity of the human spirit, which we greatly value and nurture every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStudents are not totally convinced. In a report for Chapman\u2019s The Panther Newspaper, film writing student Kiera Nusbaum summed up the mood like this: \u201cStudents [are] wondering if the school\u2019s intentions in incorporating AI stem from genuine motivation towards innovating the film industry, or pushing a different agenda based on shock value in an attempt to stimulate discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to\u00a0Rendering, a Deadline column reporting at the intersection of\u00a0AI\u00a0and showbiz. Rendering examines how\u00a0artificial intelligence\u00a0is disrupting the entertainment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,5937,5938,1693],"class_list":["post-6477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-dodge-college","tag-rendering","tag-tilly-norwood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}