Scary. Terrifying. Deeply misguided.<\/p>\n
Those were among the visceral reactions this week from Emily Blunt, Whoopi Goldberg, Natasha Lyonne and many other actors and filmmakers over the sudden fame of Tilly Norwood.<\/p>\n
Norwood isn\u2019t real \u2014 the brunette woman who appears in a comedy sketch on her Instagram page is in fact a computer-generated composite.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may be AI, but I\u2019m feeling very real emotions right now,\u201d states a message on Norwood\u2019s Instagram page. \u201cI am so excited for what\u2019s coming next!\u201d<\/p>\n
The sentiment was not widely shared, at least in Hollywood, where anxieties about the use and abuse of artificial intelligence replacing actors runs deep.<\/p>\n
Norwood\u2019s creator ignited a furor after she announced that the digital actress would soon be signed by a talent agency. <\/p>\n
This week, SAG-AFTRA weighed in with a withering response, dismissing Norwood as a \u201ccharacter generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two years ago, the union\u2019s members engaged in a 118-day strike<\/a> to fight for more AI protections in their contracts with major studios. <\/p>\n \u201cThey are taking our professional members\u2019 work that has been created, sometimes over generations, without permission, without compensation and without acknowledgment, building something new,\u201d SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin said in an interview.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the truth is, it\u2019s not new. It manipulates something that already exists, so the conceit that it isn\u2019t harming actors \u2014 because it is its own new thing \u2014 ignores the fundamental truth that it is taking something that doesn\u2019t belong to them,\u201d Astin said.<\/p>\n Astin said he would welcome a conversation with the company behind Tilly Norwood.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to allow our members to benefit from new technologies,\u201d Astin said. \u201cThey just need to know that it\u2019s happening. They need to give permission for it, and they need to be bargained with.\u201d<\/p>\n Norwood was created by AI through Xicoia, a London-based AI talent studio launched by Dutch actor Eline Van der Velden. Xicoia is working with estates and Hollywood stars who want to appear as their younger selves on screen, according to Deadline, which first reported<\/a> talent agency interest in Norwood.<\/p>\n Van der Velden, who is also the founder of AI production company Particle6, was not available for comment on Wednesday. But in a statement posted on Instagram following the backlash, Van der Velden stressed that Norwood is \u201ca creative work \u2014 a piece of art.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool \u2014 a new paintbrush,\u201d Van der Velden said. \u201cJust as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories.\u201d <\/p>\n Norwood has 44,000 followers on Instagram and is portrayed as an aspiring young actor based in London who enjoys shopping and iced coffee. <\/p>\n The social media page depicts Norwood in various scenes. In one, she\u2019s armed and ready to battle a monster; in another, she\u2019s running away from a collapsing building in a futuristic city.<\/p>\n At an industry panel in Zurich on Saturday, Van der Velden touted her creation.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Tilly, you know, when we first launched her, people were like, \u2018That\u2019s not going to happen,\u2019 \u201d Van der Velden said. \u201cAnd now, we\u2019re going to announce which agency is going to be representing her in the next few months. It\u2019s all changing and everyone is starting to see the light, fortunately.\u201d <\/p>\n Talent agencies have represented digital characters used in ad campaigns. And seeing such avatars in the mainstream has become increasingly common \u2014 in 2024, Japanese digital character Hatsune Miku<\/a> performed at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and an AI model was featured<\/a> in the August issue of Vogue magazine for L.A. brand Guess.<\/p>\n And some studios, including Lionsgate, have partnerships with AI startups to explore using the technology in areas such as storyboarding<\/a>. Others, such as Netflix and Amazon MGM Studios, have series<\/a> that use AI in visual effects. <\/p>\n Tech companies have argued that they should be able to train their AI models on content available online and bring up relevant information under the \u201cfair use<\/a>\u201d doctrine, which allows for the limited reproduction of content without permission from the copyright holder.<\/p>\n But the proliferation of AI has also fueled concerns<\/a> that AI companies are using copyrighted material to train their models without compensation or permission. Earlier this year, Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery sued AI companies<\/a> over copyright infringement. <\/p>\n