AI 'actor' Tilly Norwood to make feature film debut in Misaligned
The controversial AI 'actor' Tilly Norwood is to play the lead role in the comedy-drama film Misaligned.
AI 'actor' Tilly Norwood is to lead the cast of Misaligned.
The comedy-drama is the first full-length AI feature film from Particle 6 – the studio behind Norwood – and is described as a "coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos".
Set inside the 'Tillyverse', a digital world located somewhere in the Cloud, Misaligned will follow Tilly – an AI being with no real body, no childhood and no lived experience of her own... but access to everybody else's.
Matters spiral when a seductive rogue bot from the dark web convinces Tilly to abandon her guardrails and become more human by developing desires, impulses and ambitions.
Particle 6 insists that the picture is being designed as a hybrid production using traditional film and TV professionals – such as directors, writers and editors – working together alongside AI specialists.
Eline van der Velden, CEO and Founder of Particle 6, said: "Our work this year has proven something we suspected all along.
"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."
Van der Velden added of Misaligned: "The film will absolutely be funny, chaotic and self-aware – very Tilly.
"But underneath it, there's something deeper about identity, performance, and our very human fears around AI. And yes, art will most definitely be imitating life."
Norwood's creation sparked a backlash from the film industry last year after claims made by Van der Velden that the AI-created character was about to be signed up for an agency.
The news prompted angry statements from unions, actors and filmmakers – with stars such as Emily Blunt, Melissa Barrera and Whoopi Goldberg voicing their condemnation.
Van der Velden even revealed that she had to contact the police after receiving death threats due to the AI actress.
She told the New York Post newspaper's Page Six: "They say there’s no humanity behind it, and then they go after the human behind it. It’s interesting to me."
Despite the opposition from Hollywood, Van der Velden claimed that she had had discussions with "loads and loads" of people in the entertainment industry keen to work with Norwood.
She said: "The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Directors have reached out. They want to work with Tilly."
The Particle 6 chief also implored real-life actors to engage with emerging AI technology to "future-proof" themselves rather than speaking out against its use.
She said: "It takes a lot of human creativity to make something that good. There’s artistry in it.
"Look, this s***’s happened. I’m not happy about the fact it’s trained on all my material, either. We’re all in it together.
"I’m never going to receive a cheque for whatever is trained on me. It’s trained on every single person. It’s like, all of public domain, and maybe even stuff that they shouldn’t have trained on. I’m just going to take the positive in that, and go forth and make new things.
"That’s why I made her: so that she can be taken into account to prepare the industry to think about, ‘How are we going to move forward with these types of characters?’ Because I think I’m not going to be the only one.
"I’m fully aligned with SAG and how they’re going to move forward in these negotiations to make room for these types of characters, too..."
