The recent premiere of a “Actress” generated by AI, nicknamed Tilly Norwoodand the statements of his producer about the interest of studio executives in hiring it caused a Negative reaction from the Hollywood actors union, SAG-FTRA, condemning the replacement of human actors with “synthetic”.
Hollywood’s buzz around Tilly Norwood, presented on Saturday (27) at a film industry conference in Zurich, and the union’s scathing reaction reflected
Tilly Norwood’s official release consisted of a 20 -second appearance of the photorealist character – a fictitious girl in the early twenties with no particular resemblance to any real celebrity – in a brief video parody of how to create an AI -generated television program.
Dutch actress and producer Eline Van Der Velden, whose production studio was going to London, created Tilly Norwood, said during her presentation at the Zurich Summit that the project was starting to draw attention.
After months facing the skepticism of the board, talent agents began to say, “We need to do something with you,” said Van Der Velden, quoted by Variety magazine. She said the announcement of an unprecedented deal with a talent agency would take a few months, according to Variety.
Concerns about Hollywood actors and writers were a big problem in the latest round of SAG-AFTRA contract negotiations with streaming studios and services.
Computer -generated images are nothing new in the film industry and television, and IA -enhanced software have emerged more recently in various effects, such as “rejuvenation” technology, which allows actors to represent younger versions of themselves.
However, the ability to replicate convincingly a human performance in a feature film with AI stuntmen is still seen as distant.
“Very real emotions”
The perspective that talent agents suddenly show interest in figures created by IA has provoked a quick complaint of SAG-AFTRA, which represents 160,000 actors, speakers, recording artists, stuntmen and other talents.
“Creativity is, and should remain, centered on humans,” the union said in a statement. “The union opposes the replacement of human artists with synthetic artists.”
The parody video, which premiered in July, has 16 characters generated by AI. But Tilly Norwood – a charming figure with shoulder -length brown hair, brown eyes, British accent and his own profile on social networks – was the star.
A separate publication on social networks attributed to the character exclaims: “I can be generated by AI, but I’m feeling very real emotions now. I’m very excited about what’s to come!”
SAG-AFTRA representatives were not funny.
“To make it clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actress,” the union said in her statement. “It is a character generated by a computer program that was trained based on the work of numerous professional artists -.”
In an Instagram message, saying that Tilly Norwood “is not a substitute for a human being, but a creative work – a work of art. Like many art forms before her, she arouses conversations, and this in itself demonstrates the power of creativity.”
Van der Velden was more provocative in an interview in July for the publication Broadcast International, who quoted her saying, “We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that’s the goal of what we’re doing.”
Not everyone is convinced that Tilly Norwood has so much potential. Yves Bergquist, director of AI in media at the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California, called the commotion “absurd”.
“There is a lot of understandable nervousness and fear out there in relation to talent replacement,” he said. But judging by his own daily interactions with Hollywood executives, Bergquist said there was no interest in “serious people” in developing totally synthetic characters.
“Scarlett Johansson has a fan base. Scarlett Johansson is a person,” he said.
