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Tilly Norwood is now a singer and has a music video.
Norwood, if you didn’t know, isn’t real. She, or it, is an AI creation from London’s Xicoia Studios and is the bedrock of the “Tilly-verse” or, as The Hollywood Reporter described, “a new entertainment world where AI characters ‘live, interact and work.’”
The music video created with Norwood is called “Take the Lead” and is based on an essay written by her creator Eline van der Velden.
It is all about the backlash the company received after it was announced that agents wanted to sign the creation, THR reported.
The lyrics include, “When they talk about me, they don’t see the human spark, the creativity ... I’m just a tool, but I’ve got life.” She also sings, “They think I’m just a dollar dream but I’ve got more than they believe ...I’m not a puppet, I’m the star.”
Another lyric is, “AI’s not the enemy, it’s the key,” USA Today reported.
The video was generated by Suno with employees at Particle6 using AI tools and what THR called a “proprietary creative process” that included van der Velden acting out Norwood’s movements, which were then motion-captured.
A disclaimer on the video claims: “The following production was made by 18 real humans — from production designers to costume designers to prompters, editors and an actor. No flamingos were harmed in the process."
Van der Velden said the AI actress was a “vehicle to test the creative capabilities and boundaries of AI — not take anyone’s job."
She also called Norwood, “not a replacement or a human being, but a creative work — a piece of art," according to USA Today. She compared the creation of the AI to animation, puppetry, or CGI.
SAG-AFTRA doesn’t agree, saying AI creations are “using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”
“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 a statement last year. “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.”
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