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After the artificial intelligence-generated “actresses” draw a fierce backlash from human actors, the character maker says it's not going to replace people. But a lot of Hollywood doesn't buy it.
This was the latest film industry feud over technology that many creatives worry about, and ultimately managed to replace them.
“Tilly Norwood” looks like a young woman with wavy brown hair and clear skin that she has posted on Instagram like other Gen Z influencers since February. She is pursuing an acting career and recently posted about doing a “screen test” in the hopes of landing a gig. However, Tilly Norwood is not a real person, but is generated in AI created by Eline van Der Velden, founder of AI Startup Particle 6.
In a recent post, Ai Tilly said, “I escaped with monsters in 20 seconds, escaped the explosion, sold my car, almost won an Oscar. In all my work… find an actress who can literally do it all.
However, the project sparked a surge in criticism after the deadline for Hollywood news outlets on Saturday when talent agents reported that Tilly was about to sign as an actress and that film studios were quietly accepting AI-generated content. The Tilly Instagram account has won hundreds of angry comments, including some of Hollywood's biggest names.
“Amazing… no,” Game of Thrones actor Sophie Turner said in one comment.
“This is incredibly thoughtful and candidly get in the way,” wrote Cameron Cowperthwaite, the actor who appeared in “Shameless” and “American Horror Story.” “I want this to be human and common in every way… not human.”
Ralph Ineson, who played in “Nosferatu” and other films, responded to the project's news with a brief X-post, “F**K Off.”
In a statement posted on both her and Tilly's Instagram account, van der Werden responded to the backlash, saying that Tilly would not replace human actors.
“Tillie Norwood to those who expressed their anger at the creation of our AI characters: She's not a human successor, she's a creative piece – a work of art,” said van der Werden. “Just like animation, puppets, or CGI opened up fresh possibilities without robbing live performances, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories.”
She added: “AI characters should be judged as part of their genre in their own merits, rather than directly comparing them to human actors.”
But that could be a calm comfort for an actor who claims AI work like Tilly. Hollywood actors, writers, directors and others in the industry have raised the alarm for years that their work can be used to train AI models without consent or compensation, and can be used to make movies, TV shows, or commercials without paying human creatives.
“You didn't make this. Even hundreds of real photographers, camera operators, hecks and even farmers, you took their work and pretended it was yours,” Mara Wilson, known for films such as Matilda and Mrs. Suspicious Fire, said in a comment about another Tilly post.
Van der Velden did not immediately respond to requests for further comment from CNN.
Anxiety around AI was at the heart of the strikes of writers and actors that disrupted Hollywood in 2023. Both Hollywood unions have reached an agreement that includes protections on how major studios and streaming services use AI.
However, these contracts cannot stop others from using AI tools trained by hoovering much of the internet to generate works reminiscent of human actors and existing film scenes.
Top media companies have begun chasing AI companies to generate content that says it is infringing intellectual property. Disney and Universal sued the Mid Journey in June, accusing the photo and video generator of illegally training the material and spitting out the illicit recreation of beloved characters such as Bart Simpson and Wall-E. Warner Bros. filed a similar lawsuit against Mid Journey earlier this month. (CNN and Warner Bros. share parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, talent agencies and studios have begun to warn talent agencies and studios that they can include copyrighted material unless the Sora AI video generator and standalone app released Tuesday explicitly opt-out, unless they explicitly opt-out, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
“We work with the rights holders to understand their preferences for how content appears across the ecosystem, including Sora,” Varun Shetty, Head of Media Partnerships at Openai, said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday. SORA actively blocks AI-generated videos in the style of living artists, and offers public figures the option to opt out of their likeness being reproduced by technology, according to their public appearances.
