10 months ago
Creator of AI Actress Tilly Norwood Addresses Backlash, Future of AI in Entertainment
Imagine a new kind of digital actress named Tilly.
Her creator, Eline, made her using computers and special programs, like drawing with a super smart tool.
When people found out, many actors and others got worried, thinking Tilly might take away jobs from real actors.
Eline says that's not her plan.
She believes Tilly is like a character in a cartoon or a video game, meant for a special 'AI' kind of movie, not to replace real actors.
Eline's company also helps make real movies cheaper and safer using AI, so more stories can be told.
She explains that Tilly was made very carefully by many people and isn't based on any real person.
While some worry about AI taking jobs, Eline thinks it will actually create new kinds of jobs and more movies for everyone to enjoy.
She wants to make sure AI is used in a fair and good way for the entertainment world.
AI actress Tilly Norwood sparked global backlash after her creator, Eline Van Der Velden, revealed plans for her representation.
Van Der Velden insists Tilly is for a separate 'AI genre' and not a replacement for human actors, aiming to help greenlight projects with AI's cost and environmental benefits.
The creation of Tilly involved a team of 15 humans and a transparent, ethical process using various AI tools.
Despite backlash, Van Der Velden is still in discussions with talent agents and plans to create 40 diverse AI characters for Xicoia.
Van Der Velden advocates for industry-led ethical guidelines and sees AI as a catalyst for a 'creative renaissance' rather than job obsolescence.
- Who
- Eline Van Der Velden, creator of the AI actress Tilly Norwood
- What
- Discussed the creation of Tilly Norwood, addressed the global backlash, and explained her vision for the role of AI in the entertainment industry.
- Where
- Exclusive interview with Deadline
- When
- One month after the initial backlash at the Zurich Summit
- Why
- To set the record straight regarding Tilly Norwood's creation, purpose, and the broader implications of AI in entertainment.
Creator's Perspective (Eline Van Der Velden)
Industry & Actor Concerns
Role of AI Actors
Creator's Perspective (Eline Van Der Velden)
AI actors like Tilly belong in a separate 'AI genre' and are not intended to replace human actors, but rather to enhance creativity and greenlight projects with reduced budgets and carbon footprints.
Industry & Actor Concerns
Concerns exist that AI actors, even if intended for a separate genre, could eventually displace human actors, diminishing the human-centered nature of creativity and threatening jobs within the industry.
Ethical Considerations and Likeness
Creator's Perspective (Eline Van Der Velden)
Tilly was created through a transparent, ethical process with significant human input, and AI creations should have copyright protection. The focus is on creating original characters, not illegally using existing likenesses.
Industry & Actor Concerns
Generative AI tools are seen by some as potentially 'stealing' work by scraping internet content. There's a need for clear guidelines on compensation and consent for using likenesses, and concern over how AI is trained on existing data.
Industry Impact and Job Security
Creator's Perspective (Eline Van Der Velden)
AI will spur a 'creative renaissance,' leading to more projects being greenlit, more jobs overall, and new opportunities for storytellers in the AI space. It's a new art form, not an obsolescence of old ones.
Industry & Actor Concerns
Many professionals fear their jobs will become obsolete due to AI. While the industry has always changed, there's immediate concern about current job losses and the difficulty for young actors to build careers if AI takes over roles.
Key facts
- AI Actress Name
- Tilly Norwood
- Creator Studio
- Xicoia (offshoot of Particle6)
- Creator's Background
- Eline Van Der Velden, trained physicist and actress
- Creation Process
- Six months of iteration and creation with a team of 15 humans using various AI tools
- Future Plans
- Develop 40 diverse AI characters for the Xicoia universe
- Company Workforce
- 15 in-house employees at Particle6, planning to triple
Quotes
Eline Van der Velden
Actress and technologist, creator of AI actress Tilly Norwood
“There are lot of misconceptions out there about what AI does, and a lot of people don’t even know how it works. Humanity is always built on the shoulders of the humanity that’s come before. With AI, it trains on not thousands but billions and billions of amounts of data that has come before it. That data should rightfully be paid for … and the court cases that are going on right now should be settled. What happens after it’s been trained is a completely different thing. It then works on mathematical, statistical probabilities of pixel placements in an image. It’s not like I’m taking your eye and your mouth and amalgamating these things together. It’s trained to what a human being looks like. Just like you and me are built out of the same atoms, every image is built out of the same pixels. It’s on a pixelated level that this creation happens. It also has so much human input. We believe in humans working with AI every at step on the production chain. We have AI writers working with AI producers working with AI production coordinators down to production managers working with budgets and more. We have DoPs working with AI all the way down to the finish line … There’s humanity behind it. Tilly has 15 humans behind her … There is also a lot of data that goes into this creation right from her age to her name to where she is from. That’s why even Ryan Reynolds couldn’t find a Tilly Norwood – he found a Natalie Norwood – because there’s no competition with the name Tilly Norwood. A lot of clever stuff goes into this.”
deadline.com
“They’re all scared of the backlash. Let’s be real, nobody wants that backlash. I totally empathize the backlash. I get that people are worried they are going to be replaced but we don’t want to replace them. That’s not the purpose of it. Right now, there are less roles out there, and I truly empathize with that. But Tilly is not going to take your job and that’s a really important thing to set straight. We have been approached for those types of opportunities but that’s not what we want to do with Tilly, and we have not taken those opportunities. We want to help more people get into work in the traditional space with Particle6 and that’s by helping them use some scenes with AI. We’re getting more projects greenlit, more people into jobs and more actors out there working. That is the purpose of what Particle6 is doing and those are the projects under NDA. It’s baby steps to get the audience ready. Initially, people will use it in the CGI field and then it will be used in the way it was in The Brutalist, with an accent. And then it will be a crash scene or a certain shot and then there will be press releases for what they have used AI for, like they have in many projects up until now. That would be transparent. When AI is used, film companies should say something like “This film uses some AI technologies,” just like we used to say, “This is a historical reconstruction.” I think very soon, a lot of films will use AI to make certain scenes happen on projects that might not have happened at all.”
deadline.com
