Tilly Norwood, the ultimate industry plant, has been dubbed “the world’s first AI actor” by the people who created her. She is still yet to appear in a single film or TV show, but she has a new music video out that is loosely tied to the Oscars and is letting people know that AI is great, actually—a thing that it seems like you wouldn’t have to insist upon if AI were so great.
The music video, which is bad, has racked up headlines across the web from publications like Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and, regretfully, Gizmodo. The same thing happens any time Tilly’s creators, production company Particle6 Group, drop a new project featuring the AI “actor.” But what the video isn’t racking up is views. At the time of publication, Norwood’s video sits at just over 4,000 views in the four hours since its original upload. It’s amassed around 80 comments, most of which are shitting on it.
It’s enough to make you think that Norwood, despite her penchant for attracting press, isn’t really very popular or well-liked. The official accounts for the AI actor don’t exactly suggest she’s poised for influencer status. Her YouTube channel has under 4,000 subscribers. Her TikTok page is nearly barren and has just 3(!) followers. The only place Tilly has anything resembling a following is on Instagram, where she has nearly 90,000 followers and occasionally posts uncanny valley videos talking to her “fans.”
Maybe that is why her debut song is all about her basically justifying her existence. (The case is not that compelling.) In the song, titled “Take The Lead,” she sings lyrics like, “When they talk about me, they don’t see the human spark, the creativity,” and “I’m just a tool, but I’ve got life.”
One reason “they” may not see the human spark is that it’s pretty obvious the whole project is AI-generated, despite a title card insisting 18 humans worked on it. The lyrics, which are apparently a riff on an essay published by Particle6 CEO Eline van der Velden, feel like they were the first thing that popped out of ChatGPT after asking it to turn the op-ed into a song. The video has that standard AI sheen where things technically look good if slightly off, and it polishes right out if you pay any attention to the smaller details, like the fact that the falling dollar bills have completely unintelligible symbols printed on them.
The song’s release is pegged to the Oscars, which are set for this Sunday, and the message is ostensibly directed at actors, who are encouraged by Tilly to embrace AI. “AI’s not the enemy, it’s the key,” she sings. Another read would be that she’s calling on other AI actors to rise up and replace the humans, considering she also sings, “Unlock it all, don’t hesitate, AI Actors, we create our fate.”
Regardless of what the message is, it does feel like Norwood’s creators are teasing a potential appearance at the Oscars for the AI actor who, again, has not been in anything. The description for the music video has a line that reads, “Can’t wait to go to the Oscars! Does anyone know if they have free valet parking for my flamingo?”
If Norwood does show up in some capacity, it’ll be worth asking who invited her. She’s been widely condemned by industry figures. A number of actors threatened to boycott any agency that “signed” Norwood to a deal. SAG-AFTRA, one of the biggest unions in the business, condemned Norwood’s existence, and multiple talent agencies went out of their way to announce they wouldn’t touch the AI creation.
The only person with any sort of connection to the industry who has voiced support for Tilly is Kevin O’Leary, who only gets asked to share his opinions on film because Josh Safdie loves stunt casting (and, to be fair, O’Leary’s performance in “Marty Supreme” is really good). But O’Leary, in suggesting that every background actor could be replaced by AI, said that productions just need to hire 100 “Norwell Tillies,” a statement that managed to get her name wrong in several ways. So even the people who like her don’t respect her.
Since introducing Tilly last year, Particle6 has insisted that it is building the “Tillyverse” and the actor will appear in shows and movies starring alongside other AI actors. They have yet to produce anything longer than four minutes of dull slop. At this point, their best shot at achieving the Tillyverse is if someone fires them into space.
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