What to Know
Controversial AI “actor” Tilly Norwood now has a music video, and it’s as bad as you’d expect (or maybe worse). Particle6 founder and CEO Eline Van der Velden created the AI avatar and shared a video about the initiative in July 2025. During a Broadcast International interview, Eline described Tilly as “the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman.”
Unsurprisingly, actual, human actors (and people in general) were disgusted by this. In a statement, SAG-AFTRA actors’ union asserted that “creativity is, and should remain, human-centered,” which is why the union does not support “synthetics” replacing actual actors.
The statement emphasized that Tilly is ‘not an actor.’
Eline Van der Velden is the creator of the first ever AI actor – Tilly Norwood.
— BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) January 13, 2026
Eline talks about the ethics of her creation – which has come under scrutiny from Hollywood's performers' union.
🎧 More on the use of AI in Hollywood https://t.co/2SjZZagZVx pic.twitter.com/FQE1wfMcZR
Instead, “it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation,” the statement continued. SAG-AFTRA also pointed out that Tilly “has no life experience to draw from, no emotion,” and besides, “audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.”
Other critics have essentially said the same thing: no one asked for this, and what is the point of it?
Tilly’s creators have released a music video, which seems to address some of the backlash.
The song seems like a weird attempt to humanize the non-human “actor,” to the point that people have described it as AI propaganda. It is essentially telling the haters to embrace AI, though the arguments that are made via the song’s lyrics are not terribly convincing. Comments on the music video suggest that it actually achieved the opposite, given that someone wrote that the video is actually “the best argument I’ve seen yet about how bad AI is.”
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The song, called “Take the Lead,” has lyrics like, “When they talk about me, they don’t see the human spark, the creativity … I’m just a tool, but I’ve got life,” and “Actors, it’s time to take the lead. Create the future, plant the seed. Don’t be left out, don’t fall behind.” Is that a threat?
The lyrics continue, “Build your own, and you’ll be free. We can scale, we can grow…It’s the next evolution, can’t you see? AI’s not the enemy, it’s the key.”
But people aren’t having it.
As of March 12, the music video has about 111,000 views on YouTube, along with tons of negative comments. One comment reads, “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” Someone else wrote, “I’m simultaneously nauseous and furious. Anything that needs constant reinforcement about how great it is… isn’t.”
People had questions about the lyrics, like are they actually serious or are they meant to be satirical? Either way, there are some obvious problems with them. Per Variety, the lyrics are meant to “focus on the humanity and creativity behind Tilly.” But, um, what humanity and creativity, exactly? One critic pointed out: “They don’t see the human spark, the creativity? Well, yeah……because there isn’t any.” And another person said: “‘But I am still human…’ This is truly the era of bold faced lies.”
According to the music video’s intro, 18 humans were involved in creating the music video. They worked in production design, costume design, editing, and even acting. But this human involvement didn’t make it seem any less “soulless” or “embarrassing” to people online.
