There’s a new face in Hollywood, generated by AI

At the dawn of this century, Al Pacino starred in the film S1m0ne, a satire about a failed director who created a computer-generated “star” that took Hollywood by storm. Fast forward almost 25 years, and it seems like real life has caught up with the movies with the introduction of an AI-created actress named Tilly Norwood.

The news of an AI actress has caused Whoopi Goldberg a bit of a commotion in Hollywood due to the endless worry about who will get the role (“Go ahead, because you can always tell their from us”), Emily Blunt (“Oh God, We Screwed”).

Tilly's creator, Elin van der Velden, says she didn't expect it backlash: “No, not at all. But at the same time, I created it to have an international resonance, right? I created her to become a global superstar.”

Van der Velden, a former actress and comedienne, has set her sights high because she believes generative AI is ready for its big game—saving money and adding creativity. “At the time, I was just trying to tell these industry people what was possible,” she said.

It took van der Velden's team about 2,000 iterations to bring Tilly to life. Then she started teaching her act. She showed us some early versions of Tilly's emotions. “We started to feel different emotions with her,” she said. “We did several tests here. We didn't think the acting was very good at all.”

“Was this not up to your standards?” I asked.

“This was not up to my standards at all!”

In an interview with a British publication in July this year International broadcastingVan der Velden made a provocative statement: “We want Tilly to become the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that's the goal of what we do.”

“Yes, the Scarlett Johansson of the AI ​​genre,” she told us. “I think that’s what was missed. There was a lot of misinformation. She is not cut out for real acting work in the traditional film and television industry. It's meant to stay in its own AI genre, and that's where we want it to stay.”

However, she says her firm has received requests to cast Tilly in a film with real actors. “We refused a single offer,” van der Velden said.

“There’s a difference between pushing an envelope and tearing it.”

Sean Astin is the president of SAG-AFTRA, the actors' union in which Tilly Norwood addressed the topic of the state of artificial intelligence. When asked what Tilly represents to him, Astin replied: “Avatar And character seem like fair labels. Actressnot so much. Is she she? This? “It simply won’t replace our people.”

He says AI feels like a tsunami in Hollywood right now: “The onslaught of AI products, AI technologies and their uses is enormous. I would as citizens and as a union, as soon as we surf the wave, that we surf the wave of the material coming in.”

For the union, AI protection has been a major point of contention in strike 2023and Astin says protecting the performer's name, image and likeness from being collected without compensation is a top priority going forward. “Eline has every right to use publicly available legal information from open sources to create her creative projects,” he said. “My problem and our company's problem are with the companies that develop these systems, scrape the Internet and absorb them. They are not allowed to do this.”

Astin applauds producers who are trying to expand creative horizons using AI. But he adds: “There's a difference between going outside the box and breaking it. If you push the envelope, you'll say, “Hey, how can human art collaborate with this technology to achieve communication that audiences will enjoy?” And then it's like, “Oh, by the way, we think it's cheaper and easier, and, you know, we don't want to hire you as an actor.”

“Is this friend or foe?”

AI-generated scenes have already appeared in series such as Amazon's House of David. There are advertisements for AI, and in the summer artificial intelligence model appeared in Vogue magazine ad for the first time.

For manufacturers faced with rising production budgets, AI has evoked a range of emotions. Former entertainment executive Kevin Reilly explains: “Excitement, confusion, fear, trying to figure out how to use it. Is this friend or foe? – he said. “In my opinion, this is a true friend. This may be the most transformative event that has happened in human history.”

Reilly is now something of an artificial intelligence evangelist. He's the new CEO of Kartel.ai, a Beverly Hills startup that makes videos and advertising campaigns using artificial intelligence. “Everything has a downside,” he said. “But that’s not a reason to just be categorically afraid of it.”

I asked, “To what extent is this driven by studios, streaming platforms, and brands just wanting to save money?”

“Yeah, I think it's not necessarily, 'Hey, we want to save money,'” Reilly said. “At the end of the day, you know, it's a business.”

And for business, creativity can be extraordinary. The cartel wanted to show off a little and put generator engineer Phillip Isgro behind the wheel. He showed us the concept behind the Cup of Jo coffee ad. The advertisement featured several versions of… me! It was a little annoying.

He started with an old-fashioned storyboard, creating a human-driven world of artificial intelligence. “What does a coffee shop look like? What does the logo look like? And finally, what does You looks like? With your permission, we went to your Instagram and collected all your photos.”

That's all he needs to create my face. And with just a few teams, Cup of Jo went global with images of Jo's Coffee Shop on a barge in the middle of the ocean; on a volcano in Hawaii; and in the Alps.

“The next step in our journey is to make it a reality,” Isgro said. “We actually bring movement into our shots. I just pull out my iPhone, record who I want, and then I can instantly make the character do what I want.”

The result: a new, bright advertisement created in just a couple of days without the participation of an advertising agency, locations or my time.

“Imagine having to go and film it. You don't get that flexibility” in traditional advertising, Isgro said. “And it’s a very planned thing. You have to stick to the scripts and that's it. But in this world we can repeat endlessly without any consequences.”

This is the story of our times: the tug-of-war between artificial intelligence (“This technology is here. It's not going anywhere. How can we use it as a force for good?” asks Elin van der Velden) and humanity (“AI will never replace us,” says Sean Astin) that is something of a fascinating development at the moment.

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The story was produced by Reed Orvedahl. Editor: Jason Schmidt.

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