7 h. ago The Guardian view on Tilly Norwood: she’s not art, she’s data | Editorial

The first 100% AI actor is a cause for alarm. But the human connection of great acting can never be replacedThe threat to human creativity from technology took another step closer this week with the appearance of Tilly Norwood, the first 100% AI-generated actor. Unsurprisingly, her unveiling at the Zurich film festival in a comic sketch called AI Commissioner caused an outcry. Emily Blunt described the film as “terrifying” and the actors’ union Sag-Aftra condemned it as “jeopardising performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry”.There is much that is problematic about Norwood, not least the message her “girl-next-door vibe” sends to young women. But the more serious point is that her face has been made from those of real actors without their knowledge or consent. Her lighthearted debut masks the fact that she is part of a new model of media production that rides roughshod over longstanding norms and laws governing artists and their work. Hollywood has been anticipating Norwood...

Politics

33 h. ago Actors hate Tilly Norwood – but they are their own worst enemies | Catherine Shoard

The backlash against the AI actor has been fierce but with the rise of cosmetic surgery and navel-gazing releases, Hollywood needs to take a long, hard look at itselfGiven that she has appeared only fleetingly in a brief comedy sketch, backlash to AI actor Tilly Norwood has been swift and fulsome. The people, the industry and the critics spoke with united voice, all of them basically retching.Actors were especially fast out of the gate to condemn a concept that is – obviously – depressing, dystopian and (if the tech behind it has ripped off real-life faces) dodgy. It is also plain shonky: my colleague Stuart Heritage has said perhaps all there needs to be said about Tilly’s indeterminate dentistry, but there are clearly teething problems here that mean she’s far from ready for her closeup. Continue reading...

Politics

58 h. ago The AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood is a symptom of blandified film culture. We need a return to reality | Peter Bradshaw

The industry should refuse to work with these uncanny figures, which plagiarise the performances of generations of actorsWhat is scary about “Tilly Norwood”, the new AI-generated screen star created by the digital studio Xicoia, and launched in a pre-emptively ironic comedy video mocking the soulless unoriginality of AI, is how very convincing it looks in all its girl-next-door cheerfulness. I was expecting something like those Stepford-Wife AI language tutors that crop up on your Instagram feed, promising to practise German or Spanish or French with you. But it has to be said: “Tilly” is like an iPhone 17 making those faces look like a Nokia brick. It is not on screen for long and perhaps vanishes just before you sense something’s off, but as things stand, “Tilly” doesn’t look obviously less real than m any of the performers who appear on screen today.It is not merely that the technology which creates these unreal figures gets relentlessly better and better – the creators of “Tilly...

Culture

62 h. ago ‘It’s too late to be scared’: readers on the controversial rise of AI ‘actors’

The birth of AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood has caused a backlash in Hollywood and has sparked conversation from Guardian readersTilly Norwood: how scared should we be of the viral AI ‘actor’?The unveiling of AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood – touted as the next Scarlett Johansson – was met with swift backlash in Hollywood. Here’s what Guardian readers have to say about the controversial rise of AI actors. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Tilly Norwood: Scottish actor Briony Monroe claims her image was used in creation of Hollywood AI star

Briony Monroe says the promotional image of Tilly Norwood strongly resembles her

Culture

3 d. ago Tilly Norwood: how scared should we be of the viral AI ‘actor’?

A bunch of code is being pushed as the next Scarlett Johansson, a creation that is already causing pushback from real human actorsIt takes a lot to be the most controversial figure in Hollywood, especially when Mel Gibson still exists. And yet somehow, in a career yet to even begin, Tilly Norwood has been inundated with scorn.This is for the simple fact that Tilly Norwood does not exist. Despite looking like an uncanny fusion of Gal Gadot, Ana de Armas and High School Musical-era Vanessa Hudgens, Norwood is the creation of an AI talent studio called Xicoia. And if Xicoia is to be believed, then Norwood represents the dazzling future of the film industry. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Creator of AI film star Tilly Norwood speaks out after facing backlash

Eline Van der Velden, CEO of AI-focused production company Particle 6, has insisted that the AI-generated character is ‘not a replacement for people’

Politics

2 w. ago Robert Redford dies: Meryl Streep leads tributes to giant of American cinema, saying ‘one of the lions has passed’ – latest updates

Star of Hollywood classics including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men, dies aged 89‘The star who changed Hollywood’: Peter Bradshaw on Robert RedfordRobert Redford – a life in picturesOne of Redford’s close friends and regular contributors, Jane Fonda, has released an emotional statement about him following his death.“It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone,” she wrote. “I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.” Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Robert Redford dies: tributes paid to giant of American cinema – latest updates

Star of Hollywood classics including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men, dies aged 89‘The star who changed Hollywood’: Peter Bradshaw on Robert RedfordRobert Redford – a life in picturesBack in 2019, Ryan Gilbey set about ranking Redford’s top ten performances.As always with Ranked, positioning and omissions are supposed to spark debate (or ignite endless arguing. Should Indecent Proposal have been excluded from the top ten? Was All the President’s Men only worthy of fourth place? The debate continues. Here’s Ryan’s number one entry, the aforementioned Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid:Redford’s sole Oscar nomination for acting was, rather shockingly, for The Sting, a complacent 1973 con-man comedy. But it was his first pairing with Sting co-star Paul Newman that distils the performer’s essence. Although the movie is unable to fess up to its bromantic longings – did any woman in a buddy movie ever look more like a gooseberry than poor Katharin...

Events