A controversial new film has announced that it will be led by an AI “actor”.
Tilly Norwood was created by artificial intelligence company Particle6 Productions last year and quickly was the subject of major backlash across Hollywood.
The comedy-drama, Misaligned, will be helmed by Eline van der Velden, a comedian and writer who is behind the creation of Norwood.
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The film, which will be the company’s first feature-length production, is described as a “hybrid”, bringing together traditional film and TV creatives, as well as AI specialists.
“Our work this year has proven something we suspected all along,” van der Velden said in a statement published by The Hollywood Reporter.
“AI can support premium narrative filmmaking, but only with substantial amounts of human craft, skill, judgement and time.
“That’s not a limitation of the technology. That’s the point.
“The filmmakers who thrive in the next decade will be the ones who bring decades of storytelling instinct to these new tools, and Misaligned is where we put that to work at feature scale.”
Misaligned is set to be a coming-of-age story with Norwood playing the lead.
It will reportedly be set inside the so-called “Tillyverse” where Tilly can access others’ life experiences but, as an AI character, does not have any of her own.
“Things spiral when a seductive rogue bot from the dark web convinces her to abandon her guardrails and begin developing desires, impulses and ambitions of her own,” read a plot synopsis.
“The more terrifyingly human she becomes, the more famous she gets, and, significantly, Tilly begins to develop shame that her very being has been built on the whole of humanity.”
However, the move towards AI has unsurprisingly seen major backlash from Hollywood.
Last year, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists released a statement condemning the “character” of Norwood.
“(She) is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers,” they said in a statement published by NBC News.
“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.”
Norwood was also slammed by actors Toni Colette, Emily Blunt, and Amy Poehler.
Poehler called her a “stupid robot” who will “never be able to write a joke” during her Saturday Night Live monologue in October.
In response, van der Velden issued a statement on her Instagram defending her creation.
“To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my AI character, Tilly Norwood, she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art,” she wrote.
“Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.
“I see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool, a new paintbrush.
“Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories.
“I’m an actor myself, and nothing – certainly not an AI character – can take away the craft or joy of human performance.”
Misaligned is in early development with no release date currently set.
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