What happened

An AI-created digital persona developed by Dutch actress, comedian and technologist Eline Van der Velden, her company Particle6 and talent studio Xicoia, Tilly Norwood is designed to perform acting roles using AI-generated content. 

Various talent agencies have reputedly shown interest in representing Tilly, causing uproar among real actors and creatives. 

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and prominent actors, including Emily Blunt and Whoopi Goldberg, criticised the use of AI in this way, emphasising that Norwood is not a human actor but a software product trained on performances of countless actors without their consent or compensation. 

The backlash highlights concerns about the devaluation of artistic labour, the erosion and exploitation of creative work, abuse of copyright, and job losses. 

Why it happened

Van der Velden views Tilly Norwood as a "work of art" and a creative experiment rather than a replacement for human actors, with her AI talent studio aiming to pioneer new forms of storytelling and content generation in the entertainment industry. 

However, the lack of transparency and accountability regarding the use of AI-generated likenesses of real actors and the potential appropriation of their performances without permission fueled industry resistance. 

SAG-AFTRA's regulatory environment, strengthened recently by strike negotiations, explicitly restricts the use of AI replicas of human actors without informed consent.