Sept. 30 (UPI) — Hollywood’s actors union SAG-AFTRA on Tuesday sounded the alarm over reports that talent agents are interested in signing Tilly Norwood, an actress generated by artificial intelligence.
SAG-AFTRA’s statement opposing the replacement of “human performers by synthetics” comes days after Deadline reported that AI studio Xicoia has engaged with multiple agents who are interested in signing the digital creation Tilly Norwood for representation.
Studios’ use of AI technology was a central issue in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA-led strike that was the longest actors’ work stoppage in Hollywood history. Now, Norwood’s emergence points to an ongoing source of dispute between studios and actors.
“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,” SAG-AFTRA said in the statement. “It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.”
The union said that Norwood relies on “stolen performances” and will put actors out of work.
Norwood resembles a brunette twenty-something who speaks with a British accent and made her debut over the summer in a short AI-generated film. She already has an online presence.
Eline Van der Velden, an actor and technologist, revealed Saturday during a panel at the Zurich Summit that agents were interested in signing Norwood, the creation of the AI production studio Particle6 she founded, according to Deadline. She also said that studios and other entertainment companies were quietly embracing the technology.
“We were in a lot of boardrooms around February time, and everyone was like, ‘No, this is nothing. It’s not going to happen’. Then, by May, people were like, ‘We need to do something with you guys.’ When we first launched Tilly, people were like, ‘What’s that?’, and now we’re going to be announcing which agency is going to be representing her in the next few months,” said Van der Velden.
Van der Velden later responded to the initial backlash over Norwood, with a statement saying she is “not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work — a piece of art.”
But concerns about what Norwood means for the industry remain. Actress and producer Anne-Marie Johnson told Los Angeles NBC affiliate KNBC that “this is no laughing matter.”
“Our agents and our managers have to be partners in this because when we don’t get hired, they don’t get their commission,” she said.