Topics: Artificial intelligence, Celebrity, News, Entertainment, Music, TV And Film
Controversial actress Tilly Norwood has ventured into the world of music and become a pop star, releasing her first music video.
There's one issue, though - she isn't a real person.
The non-human 'actress,' who was created entirely with artificial intelligence, caused quite the stir last year after reports emerged she was set to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman.
Tilly is owned by Xicoia, a talent studio attached to the AI production company Particle6, and her creator is Eline Van der Velden.
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Despite being AI-generated, Tilly has racked up more than 115,000 followers on Instagram, where she shares digitally-created photos and videos of herself attending awards ceremonies and acting in 'movies'.
Backlash ensued when the news broke that talent agents had allegedly been rushing to sign the AI bot, prompting a strong negative response from the entertainment industry.
Emily Blunt called the creation 'terrifying', while Whoopi Goldberg described the situation as like being 'up against something that's been generated with 5,000 other actors'.
While Scream star Melissa Barrera raged: "Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$. How gross, read the room."
Van der Velden issued a statement at the time, clarifying that Tilly is 'not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work - a piece of art,' while arguing that 'AI offers another way to imagine and build stories'.
And it looks like the creator has been working on just that as the artificially-generated star has now released a music video, bizarrely responding to the criticism.
Take a look for yourself:
Described as a 'musical comedy video,' her tongue-in-cheek song 'Take the Lead’ has lyrics that include: "AI’s not the enemy, it’s the key."
It shows the bot as a major celebrity on billboards, getting selfies with fans, performing in stadiums, before bizarrely, flamingoes, a plane, flying dolphins, and a giant inflatable building also make an appearance.
According to a press release sent by the bot's creators, the music video release 'comes ahead of Tilly’s official AI acting debut later this year and offers the first tantalising glimpse into the evolving Tillyverse, a new entertainment world - based in the cloud - where AI characters live, interact and work'.
It was generated using the AI music site Suno, with the accompanying video created by the team at Particle6 using AI tools, including the new technique of performance capture, where Van der Velden actually acted out Tilly’s performance.
The release also outlined how the team comprised of 18 real humans in roles such as executive producer, director, production designer, costume designer, creative prompter, creative technologist, comedy writer, editor, production assistant, production co-ordinator, and an actor.
Van der Velden said in a statement: "Tilly is, and has always been, a vehicle to test the creative capabilities and boundaries of AI - not take anyone’s job.
"As an actor myself, I have loved bringing Tilly alive for this video and feel that the ability to now use performance capture in this way, to fully inhabit an AI character, is a phenomenal way to bring an unknown actor like me closer to the craft."
She added: "However, at the end of the day, even with brilliant new technology, it’s still important to stress that great AI content isn’t instant - it always takes good ideas, taste, direction, judgement, and time. In other words: people remain at the heart of it."
As for what Hollywood makes of the latest development, we'll have to wait and see.
