The creator of AI actress Tilly Norwood is addressing the backlash over potentially replacing human actors with AI ones. Eline Van Der Velden, the founder and CEO of Particle6 and creator of the AI-generated actress, spoke with ABC News Live on Tuesday to explain how she thinks Tilly will fit in the world of film -- and sought to allay concerns that Tilly would take the jobs of human actors.
Van Der Velden, who is also an actor, said that based on her experience, she is able to "bring that into Tilly and know what's important and how real I wanted to make her." She added, "In the first generations I did of her, she was very plastic and airbrushed, and that's not what I was going for. I had a very specific vision of what I had for Tilly. And I worked with the AI to really, you know, do my research and find out what resonates around the world and come to this final conclusion of what I wanted her to be like."
Van Der Velden's comments on Tuesday follow growing concern from stars like Emily Blunt who called the creation of Tilly "terrifying" in a September interview with Variety and urged agencies to "please stop taking away our human connection." Actors like Whoopi Goldberg and Simu Liu also expressed concern over Tilly with Goldberg saying on The View that AI-generated actors have an "unfair advantage" over human actors.
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SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents actors, also spoke out about the use of AI actors, saying in a statement earlier this year that "it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry."
Van Der Velden said she believes the use of AI actors like Tilly can help the film industry by getting productions in gear. "In the traditional film and TV industry, there's a lot of productions that are missing, say 20 or 30 percent of the budget," Van Der Velden said. "And so they never actually go into full production. So by using AI and facilitating that budget to be lower, we're actually getting productions going and getting more people into work. So that's really positive."
She added, "In the AI genre, you know, we think it's a new vehicle for storytelling. It's a great poetic space where you can create anything beyond that's possible within camera. So we really want to play in that. We think there's a whole creative renaissance happening and a great new way to tell new stories."
Looking at the future in film, the Particle6 Productions founder said she thinks the film industry is going to grow with the use of AI. "We're going to expand as an industry, not just animation, film and TV, but also this AI genre," she said. "I think there'll be lots of different films in which hopefully Tilly can star and we can tell stories through Tilly."
"GMA" has reached out to SAG-AFTRA for a response to Van Der Velden's comments about Tilly's role in film.
