There\u2019s a new Hollywood newcomer who already has a long list of haters: Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated \u201cactor.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Dutch comedian Eline Van der Velden, the head of AI production studio Particle6, which developed Tilly,\u00a0said<\/a> she wants the AI character to be the next Scarlett Johansson.<\/p>\n Tech: Does Border Patrol Have The Right To Go Through Your Phone? Here Are The Alarming Facts.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n But not if the rest of Hollywood has its way.<\/p>\n After Van der Velden announced what she calls \u201cthe world\u2019s first artificial intelligence talent studio\u201d\u00a0at a film festival and said Tilly had talent agents hoping to sign her<\/a>, this news of potential representation sparked widespread Hollywood backlash.<\/p>\n Multiple actors\u2019 unions\u00a0have<\/a>released<\/a> statements condemning Tilly. Actors have also accused Tilly\u2019s makers of stealing real people\u2019s images to make the AI-generated character.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her?\u201d actor Mara Wilson posted<\/a> on social media.\u00a0One Nashville-based musician even claims<\/a> that Tilly is her doppelganger.<\/p>\n Tech: Is This The Worst 1-Word Text Message You Can Possibly Send?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The company behind Tilly denies that the character was created with stolen images.<\/p>\n \u201cTilly was developed entirely from scratch using original creative design,\u201d Particle6 said in a statement to celebrity.land. \u201cWe do not and will not use any person or performer\u2019s likeness without explicit consent and fair compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n After outcry, Van der Velden said Tilly was \u201cnot a replacement for a human being, but a creative work \u2014 a piece of art\u201d in a\u00a0social media statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n But no matter how original or creative you believe Tilly to be, she is definitely drawing from tired old tropes about women and raising unsettling implications for real working people, AI experts caution. Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n For one, Tilly replicates a narrow idea of what generative AI thinks a woman should look like.<\/p>\n In a Washington Post investigation<\/a> of three of the leading AI image tools, the Post found that generative AI thinks beautiful women should look thin, young and white \u2014 which is exactly how Tilly looks.<\/p>\n Tech: Women Are More Resistant To AI Than Men \u2014 And It Could End Up Hurting Them. Here\u2019s Why.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Particle6 did not answer celebrity.land\u2019s questions about Tilly\u2019s appearance.<\/p>\n What we see on social media \u2014 including the accounts set up for Tilly on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram \u2014 might have long-term effects on how people view their own real bodies.<\/p>\n Safiya Noble<\/a>, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of the book \u201cAlgorithms of Oppression,\u201d\u00a0said Tilly is a continuation of the kind of distortions that social media photo filters cause people.<\/p>\n \u201cThose distortions, even though they are seemingly unreal, they circulate so much in our culture that then are celebrated and … liked and hearted,\u201d Noble said. \u201cAnd that certainly has a psychological and emotional toll on us.\u201c<\/p>\n Tech: The Viral AI Action Figure Trend Could Be Putting Your Cybersecurity At Risk \u2014\u00a0Here’s What To Know<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n A 2022 study<\/a> on Instagram found that browsing how other people looked on the popular social media platform was linked to \u201cdetrimental outcomes\u201d around body dissatisfaction in young women.<\/p>\n Above all, Tilly reveals a lot about how corporations value women\u2019s work.<\/p>\n Alexandra Mateescu<\/a>, a researcher with Data & Society\u2019s\u00a0Labor Futures<\/a>\u00a0program, said what she found most interesting and unsettling about Tilly\u2019s existence came from a line in a Particle6\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0where she appears in her first role.<\/p>\n In an AI-generated comedy sketch from Particle6, Tilly gets cast to be in a TV show. A man then states, \u201cShe\u2019ll do anything I say; I\u2019m already in love.\u201d<\/p>\n Read: The Rise of Queer AI Influencers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n That line suggests \u201cthis vision of this feminine, docile, cute, young actress who won\u2019t talk back or complain about working conditions or anything,\u201d Mateescu said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why, for Mateescu, her biggest worry with Tilly is \u201cmore about these kinds of marketing exercises being used as a cudgel, particularly for actors at the bottom of film industry hierarchies, to discourage them from demanding better working conditions under this threat of potentially being replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n Mateescu said she has seen this power dynamic in other creative industries, like modeling. She recently co-authored a paper<\/a> on how generative AI is making it easier for companies to use a model\u2019s image and measurements and alter them without a model\u2019s knowledge or compensation.<\/p>\n In her research, \u201cpeople at the top of the industry, both photographers and top models, they could view AI as this creative tool in their arsenal to be able to enhance their creative practices,\u201d Mateescu said. But struggling models doing profit-driven e-commerce catalogs were more negatively impacted. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s sort of the same pattern we see across industries.\u201d<\/p>\n In this sense, Tilly might represent a bigger existential threat to vulnerable, newer actors who do not have the same power and networks as A-list stars.<\/p>\n In Noble\u2019s view, Tilly\u2019s existence normalizes \u201ccontrolling women\u2019s images\u201d and the idea that it\u2019s OK to \u201cmake women do what we want them to do. That culture is prevalent all around us.\u201d<\/p>\n Tilly is not real, but it\u2019s normal if you\u2019re confused over what to call her. That might be by design.<\/p>\n Noble pointed to the character saying, \u201cI may be AI generated, but I\u2019m feeling very real emotions right now\u201d in a post appearing on her\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0as an example of the kind of misrepresentation this AI-generated actor perpetuates.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more kind of anthropomorphized they are, the more misleading and deceptive they are to the public,\u201d Noble said. \u201cThis is why these technologies are so incredibly dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n One way to resist is to be more careful about how you talk about AI-generated projects like Tilly.<\/p>\n Instead of seeing Tilly as an \u201cactor,\u201d as her profile<\/a>\u00a0describes her, or as the next Scarlett Johansson, as her creator hopes<\/a> her to be, experts suggest you should see her for what she really is \u2014 a marketing product.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Noble suggests against calling Tilly art and instead categorizing Tilly as the latest example of low-quality, spamlike \u201cAI slop.\u201d<\/p>\n And try to avoid referring to Tilly as an actor. \u201cWe should call it \u2018it,\u2019\u201d Noble said. \u201cWe should talk about it like a machine learning model.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe notion of AI personhood is a marketing exercise and a legal maneuver that I don\u2019t think we should buy into,\u201d Matreescu said. \u201cTilly is not an actress any more than, like, Sid the sloth from the \u2018Ice Age\u2019 movies is an actor. It\u2019s just a digital likeness.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the original on celebrity.land<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\nTilly reinforces more of the same tired beauty standards for women.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Tilly\u2019s obedience might be the most unsettling part about \u201cher.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Avoiding \u201cAI personhood\u201d might be the best way to deal with Tilly.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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