SAG-AFTRA condemns AI actor Tilly Norwood

Move over, human stars, Hollywood has a brand-new face! Meet Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated actress being pitched as the next big talent by talent agencies. But not everyone is ready to roll out the red carpet: SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, has firmly drawn the line, taking to social media to announce they'll stick to human talents and AI is a no-go for them.

Hollywood’s new AI actress sparks controversy & faces rejection from SAG-AFTRA

Tilly Norwood, the brainchild of Eline Van der Velden, has been making waves in Hollywood. Why stop at VFX and animation when you can have an entire AI actress, right? The creators took to social media and wrote, “I may be AI, but I’m feeling very real emotions right now. I am so excited for what’s coming next!”

But this came as a big red flag for the SAG-AFTRA who currently represents more than 1,60,000 actors and other entertainment workers. The union’s real concern is that creativity should stay as humanly as possible. They said, “creativity is, and should remain, human-centered.” It is “opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics”, they added. 

Slamming this new creation the union stated, “To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation”. 

An AI can never replicate the emotions a human brings to a role. It’s life experiences that shape an actor’s performance. One protest banner summed it up perfectly with the statement: “CHATGPT doesn’t have childhood trauma.”

In defense of such allegations and rejections, creator Eline took to the socials and stated, Tilly 'is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art.”

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