AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood’s glitch sparks discussion on future of AI in film - thepostathens.com

Tilly Norwood, Hollywood’s first artificial intelligence “actor,“ glitched promoting its debut film “Misaligned” on Sept. 18. During an interview on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” the generative AI model switched from speaking English to Cantonese mid-conversation after being asked a question about the nature of its co-stars in the movie.

“Sometimes my wires get a bit crossed,“ Norwood said, laughing off the glitch. In the days since Norwood’s glitch, a new wave of discourse around the ethics of AI actors has emerged. While some welcome Norwood and other AI actors with open arms, many in the industry are deeply opposed to the idea of an AI performer.

Norwood was created in 2025 by Xicoia, the AI division of production company Particle6.

The founder of Particle6, Eline Van der Velden, said in an interview with Broadcast International the studio has high hopes for Norwood’s career. “We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that’s the aim of what we’re doing,” she said.

The AI model made its first on-screen appearance in the comedy short “AI Commissioner.” The short follows a series of AI-generated characters as they talk cheerfully about the AI-controlled future of television development in which one AI model can write, produce, direct and star in a show all by itself for minimal cost. The short received heavy criticism due to its unfunny comedic moments and characters deep in the uncanny valley.

After the short’s release, many actors and industry officials began to express concern about the concept of AI models starring in films. The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists released a statement last October saying they do not consider Norwood an actor.

“It's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers," they said. The union argued that using AI in film takes jobs away from human actors, solving the issue of cost at the expense of people’s livelihoods. Other Hollywood stars like Emily Blunt and Whoopi Goldberg also expressed their distaste for Norwood and other AI in the film industry.

Norwood’s recent glitch brought the concerns about generative AI in film back into the limelight. “500 Days of Summer” star Joseph Gordon-Levittdiscussed Norwood in a recent interview, making his opinions on the AI character clear.

“I think the first thing to remember is that AI is not a person,” he said. “I've heard it referred to as a new species. I think that's an illusion. AI, as we know it, is an algorithmic recombination of human inputs.”

He further explained Norwood and other AI characters are not and cannot be considered to be giving a performance in films. "In order for someone to give a performance, there has to be a performer,” he said.

He compared Norwood to classic cartoon characters like Donald Duck, saying a person wouldn’t call Donald an actor just because he appeared in a film. Instead, people highlight the effort artists, writers and actors put into creating the character the audience sees on screen.

Actors such as Gordon-Levitt present the debate about AI “actors” as one about how these creations are presented. When AIs are presented as actors, they fill the same area in the audience's brain as real humans who spend their lives honing their craft and providing quality performances for their audience. Giving AI creations like Norwood the same weight in the audience's mind undermines the performances of those actors, as well as putting actors at risk of losing their jobs to the significantly easier and cheaper AI offers to filmmakers.

Despite the pushback from actors, it seems Particle6 and Van der Velden are undeterred in their goal to make Norwood the next big star in Hollywood. “I had programmed her to become the most famous AI actress, so I don’t know how she did it, but she did, which is slightly scary,” she said in an interview with Variety. Van der Velden went on to say Norwood gets plenty of offers from film studios to act in their films, but they’re picking and choosing which films the AI will appear in.

Norwood stands as the first vanguard of a potential future for the film industry where AI becomes the standard for performances in film. Only time will tell if this future comes to pass or if human performances will remain as the gold standard in Hollywood.