Entertainment <\/p>\n
\n\tThe news of Tilly Norwood<\/a>\u2019s feature-length movie debut<\/a> again brought out the digital pitchforks surrounding her existence, with commenters weighing in on everything from the concept<\/a> of an AI actress leading a film to why entertainment outlets<\/a> such as Variety <\/em>covered the news.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tNorwood\u2019s creator is taking the backlash in stride, insisting that she\u2019s just trying to show the industry the art of what\u2019s possible with the tech. <\/p>\n \n\tAI-focused studio Particle 6 announced Monday that it was in production on \u201cMisaligned,\u201d<\/a> a comedy-drama Norwood will \u201cstar\u201d in that will combine human crewmembers with AI tools.<\/p>\n \n\tEline van der Velden<\/a>, founder and CEO of the London-based company, told Variety <\/em>via email that the intention behind the feature is to \u201cdemonstrate where AI is at \u2014 and upskill and bring as many people as possible from the industry with us into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMore people than ever before are hearing and understanding that message,\u201d she said, claiming there\u2019s been a \u201cnoticeable uplift\u201d in interest from creatives since the announcement. \u201cAnd if we can get more people working in AI and future-proofing their roles, a little criticism won\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhether people in the entertainment industry really are receptive to that message is open for debate. Many of the associations representing professionals in the biz showed little desire to discuss Norwood\u2019s film debut. But what\u2019s clear is that some in Hollywood see the Norwood persona as a persistent threat and continue to question whether the AI \u201cactor\u201d has been trained on content without permission or compensation.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a statement to Variety<\/em>, U.K. performers\u2019 union Equity said that when \u201cit comes to the use of AI avatars \u2014 whether that\u2019s \u2018Tilly Norwood\u2019 or any others \u2014 there are concerns about how a digital replica or avatar was created\u201d and that it believed \u201ctransparency, consent and remuneration are key to addressing AI use in the film, TV and audio industries.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhile data scraping and untraceable training data sources continue, the questions of theft and misuse will persist,\u201d Cathy Sweet, Equity\u2019s head of film and TV, said in a statement. \u201cActors, voice artists and performers of all kinds are left vulnerable to their work being stolen and used without their consent or even knowledge. This isn\u2019t OK and it has to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBecause Norwood is not a person, she \u201ccan\u2019t really be a performer,\u201d said Ted Tremper, interim executive director of the Creators Coalition on AI whose co-founders include the Daniels, Natasha Lyonne and former Academy president Janet Yang.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a character that\u2019s created from that\u2019s an assemblage of a tremendous amount of unseen extracted creativity and the name, image, and likenesses of people who haven\u2019t been credited or compensated for the work that it took to create,\u201d Tremper said, adding that she posed the question of \u201cwhether or not people know how it\u2019s made and whether or not the human beings whose work was extracted to create it are being respected and paid.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRepresentatives for the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America, two unions representing Hollywood\u2019s legion of scribes and filmmakers, did not respond to Variety\u2019s <\/em>requests for comment on the news about a Norwood-led film. The Motion Pictures Editors Guild declined to comment for now about the prospect of editors working on a film featuring Norwood, while the Hollywood performers\u2019 union, SAG-AFTRA, pointed to its past statements on Norwood\u2019s emergence, one of which<\/a> called her the \u201csynthetic construct generated by software trained on the work of countless professional performers, real human beings, whose work was taken without permission, without credit and without compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to van der Velden, Norwood was not \u201cbased on any specific person\u2019s likeness\u201d and instead created through \u201coriginal prompting, thousands of iterations and substantial human creative oversight\u201d along with \u201copenly available tools \u2014 which draw on everything ever uploaded to the internet \u2014 including my own work as an actress.\u201d Norwood will only appear in films created by AI, she said, not those featuring real people.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYes, we agree, Tilly isn\u2019t a person,\u201d van der Velden added. \u201cShe is an AI actor, a character created by Particle 6 to highlight, demonstrate and teach people about AI.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNearly a year after Norwood broke into public view with van der Velden\u2019s claim<\/a> that talent agencies were eager to represent the AI performer, one talent agency partner told Variety <\/em>they couldn\u2019t \u201cimagine the complexities of representing a synthetic actor like a Tilly, given that that\u2019s not a person.\u201d Agencies including WME <\/a>and Gersh<\/a> also have bucked at the thought. Van der Velden said Particle 6\u2019s conversations with talent agencies ceased after September and the company doesn\u2019t believe one is necessary at the moment.<\/p>\n \n\tTremper said he could imagine a future where AI usage isn\u2019t vilified and synthetic or duplicated actors emerge with proper compensation. However, he said, doing so would require \u201ca tremendous amount of good faith\u201d collaboration between those making and using the technology.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOnce we actually, as a society, understand the ways that things are made, we are able to form a consensus,\u201d he said, such as through voting or community organizing. \u201cI think the most insidious thing that happens is that the people who make these [AI] tools, services and characters want to convince the audience that they don\u2019t have a choice or that they don\u2019t have self-determination, and that all of this is inevitable, and that is extraordinary. That is demonstrably false.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe tug-of-war surrounding Norwood\u2019s existence comes as the industry continues to grapple with generative AI. Reactions in the business have ranged from ostracization to tepid curiosity \u2014 and all the way to wholesale embrace, all while studios try to enforce regulations that protect humans\u2019 likenesses and jobs.<\/p>\n \n\tIllumination CEO Chris Meledandri, speaking to Variety <\/em>at the \u201cMinions & Monsters\u201d premiere just before word of Norwood\u2019s feature-film debut came out, said his team was \u201ccomplete believers in the human imagination\u201d and felt \u201cno pressure to push AI into our pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI wish I had a crystal ball,\u201d Meledandri added. \u201cI wish I could understand where it\u2019s going, and I worry about the future of work across all industries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n