Meet Tilly Norwood: She’s Not Art, She Is Data.
The threat to human creativity from technology advanced another step this week via the debut of Tilly Norwood, the pioneer completely synthesized by artificial intelligence. As expected, her premiere at the Zurich film event in a comic sketch called AI Commissioner sparked controversy. The film was called “terrifying” by Emily Blunt while the performers' union Sag-Aftra denounced it for “endangering actors' incomes and undermining human artistic value”.
Many concerns arise with Norwood, especially the signal her “approachable” persona sends to female youth. However, the deeper issue involves her facial features being derived from actual performers lacking their awareness or approval. Her lighthearted debut masks the fact that she embodies an innovative system for producing media that rides roughshod over longstanding norms and laws overseeing artists and their creations.
Hollywood has been anticipating Norwood’s arrival for some time. Features including the 2002 sci-fi tale Simone, depicting a director who designs an ideal actress digitally, and 2013’s The Congress, where an aging celebrity undergoes digital replication by her studio, turned out to be incredibly forward-thinking. The recent body horror film The Substance, with Demi Moore as a fading star who generates a youthful duplicate, likewise mocked the film world's fixation on youth and attractiveness. Currently, in a Frankenstein-esque turn, the movie industry confronts the “ideal actress”.
The maker of Norwood, performer and author Eline Van der Velden supported her by saying she is “not taking a human's place”, rather “an artistic creation”, portraying AI as a fresh instrument, similar to a brush. As per its supporters, artificial intelligence will open up film production, as all individuals can create films without major studio backing.
From the Gutenberg press to talkies and TV, every artistic upheaval has faced fear and criticism. An Oscar for visual effects wasn't always available, remember. Plus, AI is already integrated into cinema, especially in animation and sci-fi genres. A pair of last year's Academy Award-winning movies – Emilia Perez and The Brutalist – used AI to enhance voices. Dead actors including Carrie Fisher have been resurrected for posthumous cameos.
However, although some embrace these opportunities, and the potential for AI thespians to cut filming budgets significantly, film industry staff have valid reasons for worry. The writers' strike of 2023 achieved a halfway success resisting the deployment of artificial intelligence. And even as leading celebrities' thoughts on Norwood are well-documented, typically it is the less powerful individuals whose employment is most endangered – background and voice actors, makeup artists and production teams.
AI actors are an inevitable product of a culture awash with social media slop, cosmetic surgery and fakery. Currently, Norwood cannot perform or engage. She lacks empathy, since, obviously, she isn't human. She is not “artistic” too; she is merely data. The genuine enchantment of films lies in human connection, and that cannot be artificially generated. We watch films to see real people in real locations, feeling real emotions. We don't desire flawless atmospheres.
However, although alerts that Norwood poses a wide-eyed danger to cinema may be overblown, currently, anyway, that isn't to say there are no threats. Regulations are delayed and cumbersome, whereas technology progresses at a staggering pace. Additional actions are required to safeguard actors and production teams, and the worth of human inventiveness.
