Tilly

Just in time for the Oscars, Tilly Norwood, and by extension her creator, Eline van der Velden, gave actors at every level an unexpected gift — the chance to breathe a little easier.

AI will not be replacing you any time soon.

On Tuesday, the AI phenomenon known as Tilly debuted a single and music video titled “Take the Lead.” In it, Tilly sings a self-celebratory, pro-AI anthem with the big-eyed feisty longing of an algorithm marked “Disney princess: Big song” while she wanders through increasingly fantastic self-affirming scenarios that scream “Plus ‘Barbie.’”

Van der Velden was clearly trying to persuade actors to embrace the possibilities of AI but like Timothée Chalamet, who managed to prove that opera and ballet have many devoted fans by publicly suggesting the opposite, her attempt will likely backfire. The underlying message of the video, at least to performers, appears to be: Relax — AI hasn’t figured out how to lip sync properly, much less act.

It’s a bit of good news in a time of AI anxiety, some of which was Tilly-induced. Last year, Van der Velden, a Dutch actor and founder of the production company Particle6, debuted Tilly, via Instagram, as the “world’s first AI actress.” Around the time the account hit 50,000 followers, Van der Velden announced that several talent agents were interested in representing Tilly. Not Van der Velden, but Tilly Norwood, a “performer” who did not exist.

For a few minutes, Hollywood lost its collective mind. Not only were creators and performers facing a future in which their work, bodies and faces could be scanned and fed into an algorithm capable of imitating writing styles or creating images of actors doing things they never did (in a recent AI video, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt duke it out on a war-torn rooftop), now some feared they would be competing for jobs with “actors” who could work 24 hours a day, required no health benefits and would never demand bowls of M&Ms with the green ones removed.

SAG-AFTRA, which had just ended a strike caused in part by concerns about AI, protested Tilly and the use of “stolen performances to put actors out of work.” Various actors were outraged and some called for the interested talent agencies to be identified. Even Emily Blunt was publicly disconcerted, begging Hollywood agencies to “please stop taking away our human connection.”

Van der Velden quickly responded, insisting that Tilly was “not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work — a piece of art … a new tool — a new paintbrush.”

Then, on Tuesday, “Tilly” released a music video that seems to argue the exact opposite.

In the video, which appears over the message “Can’t wait to go to the Oscars,” the computer-generated young woman trips through a montage of “famous person moments,” as Tilly insists that she is not a puppet but a star; she encourages all actors to embrace and use AI, to own their creativity and “be free.”

A note prefacing the video states that “18 real humans” were involved in its production (including Van der Velden who is the basis of the performance), who provide the subtext for Tilly warbling: “They say it’s not real, that it’s fake, but I’m a human, make no mistake.”

Whatever Van der Velden and her team hoped to achieve, one thing is very clear: Emily Blunt has nothing to fear from Tilly Norwood.

The questionable merits of the song, performance and production value aside, the video is the best argument yet for why AI “performers” are a limited threat. As Tilly walks the streets of London, poses for selfies, signs autographs, appears on talk shows, performs live in front of enormous audiences, interacts with photographers, we are reminded that Tilly could never do any of this. AI performances are, by their very nature, limited to a screen.

Instagram fame is a real thing and can be monetarily beneficial, just as animated and digitally enhanced characters can connect deeply with audiences. But beyond her ability to raise the spectre of wholly coded “performers” constructed from borrowed bits of humans (which, as anyone who has read or seen “Frankenstein” knows, never ends well), Tilly doesn’t appear to have anything like star power.

And to consider her as existing separate from her creators is like imagining that the ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy could have a career, and an agent, separate from the real performer Edgar Bergen.

Though Charlie did have the advantage of being able to be seen live and in person.

Watching Tilly, one is reminded that the magic of actors is that they are human. Audiences are, after all, human too and whether facing a stage or a screen, we are captivated by certain performers’ ability to bring all manner of characters and stories alive, while also being, as Us Weekly says, “just like us.”

People with bodies that age and change, people who fall in love, get messy, say dumb things, say smart things, fall prey to illness and accidents, shop at Trader Joe’s, end up in court or trip when about to receive an Oscar.

Their faulty, glorious humanity allows them to connect to their art, but it also connects them to us. We may never get an Oscar or be able to masterfully deliver a Shakespeare soliloquy on a chat show, but we know what it’s like to trip or say something dumb or experience aging, illness or accident.

You can’t replace actors with algorithms, even if/when someone comes up with something more convincing than Tilly, because actors are not just about performances. They are people who are alive in the world and no amount of coding can replicate that.

The digital world of the first AI actor, Tilly Norwood, is expanding.

AI talent studio Xicoia, which created Norwood, has announced plans for a “rapid expansion” for the digitized actor. The developments include a digital universe dubbed the “Tillyverse,” where ”Tilly and a new generation of AI characters will live, collaborate and build careers.”

The London-based company responsible for creating emotionally intelligent, hyperreal AI personas said it’s focused on more than experimenting with AI actors. It plans to build its own IP and change “how talent is created, developed and experienced in the AI era.”

“Together, we’re building something entirely new. Tilly Norwood isn’t just an AI character — she’s a personality, a brand, and a future global superstar with a compelling narrative arc,” said Xicoia CEO Eline van der Velden in a release.

Norwood was first launched last fall. Upon its introduction, many Hollywood actors, including Emily Blunt, Whoopi Goldberg and Natasha Lyonne, spoke out against the bot. Though Norwood has yet to star in a major project, the fear of AI-generated characters replacing actors and taking jobs is widespread.

Previously, SAG-AFTRA’s president, Sean Astin, also criticized the bot, saying, “It manipulates something that already exists, so the conceit that it isn’t harming actors — because it is its own new thing — ignores the fundamental truth that it is taking something that doesn’t belong to them.”

The development deepens union anxieties more than two years after concerns about the use and misuse of artificial intelligence led to back-to-back strikes.

SAG-AFTRA re-entered contract negotiations with the major studios last month. The union is expected to propose what has been called the Tilly tax, a fee that studios would have to pay to the union in exchange for using an AI actor.

Xicoia, which is owned by AI video production studio Particle6, recently hired former Amazon Prime Video executive Mark Whelan. He will lead Norwood’s expansion, develop new AI characters and oversee the creation of AI talent commissioned by third parties.

“Becoming a lead architect of the Tillyverse is genuinely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Whelan in the release. “AI is evolving at breathtaking speed, and combining cutting-edge tech with ambitious creative thinking means we’re not following an industry playbook at Xicoia — we are writing it.”

The company expects the “Tillyverse” to launch later this year.

EXCLUSIVE: Tilly and Antony were handcuffed together 24/7 as they competed for £100,000 on the Channel 4 reality show hosted by Jonathan Ross

Tilly and Antony have spilled the beans on what it was truly like being shackled together for Channel 4‘s outrageous new programme.

The Suffolk-based millionaire vintage car enthusaist, aged 60, and a 37-year-old barmaid from North London who balances three jobs, are among the nine pairs of Brits vying for the £100,000 prize.

Introduced by host Jonathan Ross, the 18 Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing contestants will have to endure being chained to each other round-the-clock, doing everything in unison.

If the pressure becomes unbearable, they can choose to uncuff at any moment, but doing so means they’re out of the running, with the last pair standing claiming the entire pot.

The competitors are a diverse mix from all walks of life and are strangers to each other, reports the Daily Star.

As the cuffs are secured, with the duos separated by a special screen, they’ll only find out who they’ve been chained to once the partition is removed.

Discussing the biggest hurdle they encountered, Antony revealed: “Being a man of 60 years of age, I have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the loo so I was conscious of the fact that wouldn’t be something Tilly would be doing.

“I practised for weeks before we filmed with every contraption known to man on how to actually wee in the bed and I managed to get the right contraption so that was a really tough thing but I don’t think I ever woke her up when I was doing it.”

He continued: “She used to snuggle down sort of hip level and I got this contraption on the old man to pee and her head was six inches away from it and then, of course, once it’s finished, you’ve got to put the lid back on and put it by the side of the bed.

“So I had all that to deal with without waking her up and I was very proud of the fact that I mastered it. I carried this thing around with me everywhere but I found that difficult to begin with.”

Tilly, who has previously appeared on The Island with Bear Grylls, went on to share the biggest lessons she learned after taking part in the social experiment, saying: “I think to listen more, be patient and realise that everybody is different, everybody comes from a different background and that makes them who they are.

“Me and Antony had a chat quite early on, I think it was on the first day, and I said ‘listen, I’m not gonna quit’ and Antony was like ‘neither am I’. So we were like, okay, well, cool’.

“I wouldn’t have bothered entering the competition if I thought for a minute that I wouldn’t see it through on my part. I done it for the money.”

Fans will have to wait and see exactly how far Tilly and Antony progress in the competition, but the pair remain friends despite showering and using the toilet mere inches from one another.

Antony said: “I think I have changed a lot since the show and I’m not quite as private a person as I was. I was determined that the person I was gonna be handcuffed to I would get on with.

“When the screen went back, we had a connection and it’s as simple that. I thought to myself ‘thank God for that’. I consider she’ll always be a friend and there’s quite a lot planned for the future for us.”

Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing launches Monday, March 2 at 9pm. Watch or stream on Channel 4.

For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new **Everything Gossip** website.

Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source.** Click here to activate**** or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.**