Tilly Norwood: the Cookham woman’s 'AI actress' sparking Hollywood backlash

A Cookham resident has insisted her AI creation is a ‘piece of art’ after it courted global controversy and was accused of ‘jeopardising livelihoods’ by a 160,000-strong union.

Tilly Norwood, a so-called AI actress developed by comedian Eline Van Der Velden through her company Particle 6, is at the centre of a storm over artificial intelligence use in film and TV.

For Ms Van Der Velden, Norwood – the computerised incarnation of a young brown-haired woman with a shiny smile – represents ‘the power of creativity’.

Videos showcasing the AI character’s capabilities show her superimposed into a sci-fi cityscape, looking flustered as she turns her head towards an exploding skyscraper in the distance.

Others place her on a desert planet, dressed as if she had stepped straight out of the pages of a superhero comic book and complete with a giant lizard-like monster lumbering toward her.

A two-minute promotional video from Particle 6 delves further into the potential of its AI development engine called DeepFame.

The video, completely computer-generated according to the company, features fast-paced cuts between fictional human characters, environments and appears to poke fun at the film and TV industry as well as itself.

One male AI character scoffs as he says of Norwood: “She’ll do anything I say, I’m in love already.” Another quips back: “But can she cry on Graham Norton?”

We cut to Norwood sat on the BBC chat show’s iconic red sofa as the viewer hears the words: “Of course she can, and it’ll be clipped, subtitled and monetised on TikTok by lunchtime.”

A rapture of artificial applause erupts from an imaginary audience as Norwood’s imitation tears begin to stream.

But does the AI creation look convincing enough to warrant the applause? Well, apparently convincing enough to have drawn the scorn of certain media elites.

The industry’s largest union – the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union – has issued a scathing critique of Norwood.

More than 160,000 media professionals are represented by SAG-AFTRA, which coordinated strike action in 2023 over pay and calls for better protections against AI use in film.

“To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor,” the union said in a statement following Norwood’s debut showing at Zurich Film Festival late last month.

It added: “It doesn’t solve any ‘problem’ – it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardising performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”

UK performers’ union Equity, which represents nearly 50,000 people, also released a damning statement in which it warned Norwood was part of an AI ‘Wild West’.

“These AI systems have been trained on human likeness and human voices,” a statement said.

“Sometimes this is done with performers’ permission, but often it is not.

“This Wild West must end, and robust protections must be implemented to ensure artists’ work is not stolen.”

Emily Blunt, the star of Edge of Tomorrow and A Quiet Place, added her voice when she described Norwood as ‘terrifying’ in an interview with Variety.

But for its creator, Ms Van Der Velden – the Cookham resident who made headlines earlier this year as she led a revived campaign for better cycling paths for the village – Norwood is ‘experimentation, not substitution’ for human performers.

In a message posted to social media, Ms Van De Velden defended the AI creation.

She said: “To those who have expressed anger over the creation of our AI character, Tilly Norwood: she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art.

"Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.”

She added: “Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of of imagination and craftsmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance.

"It takes time, skill, and iteration to bring such characters to life. She represents experimentation, not substitution.”

Ms Van Der Velden said she views AI characters as ‘part of their own genre’ who could become part of the ‘wider artistic family’.