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“She” can’t act. “She” can’t sing. “She”‘s finding it hard to do anything. Apart from bugging out during interviews and switching languages for no apparent reason…
Controversial AI “actress” and “singer” Tilly Norwood had an embarrassing moment during a recent promotional interview in which the Particle6 and AI “talent” studio creation suffered a glaring glitch.
The computer-generated avatar was in conversation with Piers Morgan and actor Tom Conti on Piers Morgan Uncensored and when talk turned to her feature film debut Misaligned, Norwood inexplicably started speaking Cantonese.
When asked by Conti whether her co-stars on the project were human or AI, Norwood began replying in English.
“It’s an interesting point, Tom. My film Misaligned is a hybrid production, meaning real directors, writers and editors are still very much involved. It’s not about replacing anyone, but about exploring new ways to tell stories,” Norwood initially responded.
“You didn’t really understand the question,” Conti replied. “Are the other actors on the screen with you real actors, or are they computer-generated images? Do you know?”
“Ah, right. You’re asking about the other actors in Misaligned,” Norwood starts. “They’re all digital twins just like me. It’s a hybrid production which means…” Norwood then stops talking before starting to speak in Cantonese, leaving Conti and Morgan perplexed.
“You seem to be speaking Chinese completely randomly for no reason,” reacted Morgan. “Why did you do that?”.
“Oh, my apologies,” the creation replied. “It seems I had a little hiccup there. I certainly didn’t mean to start speaking Chinese or impersonate Piers. Sometimes my wires get a bit crossed, you know?”
The clip of the exchange was shared on X and as of writing it has been viewed more than 14 million times.
Co-founder of Particle6, Eline van der Velden, gave an explanation for her short-circuiting bot to Deadline, saying: “Tilly can be a bit of a show-off – I’m guessing she just wanted to show her language skills as most of her interviews to date have been in English… She is autonomous after all.”
That’s reassuring. And not at all toe-curling.
Norwood made its debut last year and quickly came under fire from Hollywood, with actors’ union SAG-AFTRA issuing the following statement: “It’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers – without permission or compensation.”
They added: “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. It doesn’t solve any “problem” – it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”
In March, Norwood made her music video debut as part of the Tillyverse, with Euronews Culture describing her song ‘Take The Lead’ as “audio poison”, adding that the track has a lyrical “petulance to it, progressively revealing itself as an insipid but alarming piece of AI propaganda.”
Now, we have Misaligned to look forward to… Billed as a “coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos,” according to a news release from Particle6, the project will see Norwood play an AI being who is encouraged by a “seductive rogue bot from the dark web” to start developing “desires, impulses and ambitions of her own.”
No release date for the “film” has been announced. However, if it’s anything like Norwood’s first single ‘Take The Lead’ and her stilted / glitchy interview performances, it seems like it will it be another irritating reminder that there are those who take pleasure in devaluing real human artistry while ignoring alarming warnings regarding the divisive technology.
The “existential AI chaos” continues.