What happened
Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated character from Eline van der Velden's Particle6 and Xicoia studios, debuted a music video for her single "Take the Lead" on Tuesday. The video, intended to advocate for AI as a creative tool, inadvertently highlighted current AI limitations: inaccurate lip-syncing and unconvincing acting. This follows Tilly's 2025 Instagram introduction as the "world's first AI actress," which attracted talent agent interest, prompting SAG-AFTRA to protest "stolen performances" and assert human-centred creativity.
Why it matters
Creative directors and production teams must recognise AI's current limitations in nuanced performance. The Tilly music video demonstrates AI's inability to convincingly lip-sync or act, despite 18 human contributors. This constrains AI "performers" to screen-only applications, lacking human presence and interaction critical for live performance. Talent agencies and investors evaluating AI creative tools should prioritise demonstrable capabilities over hype, understanding significant human input remains essential for basic performance quality. This follows SAG-AFTRA's prior warnings against AI replacing human performers.
Subscribe for Weekly Updates
Stay ahead with our weekly AI and tech briefings, delivered every Tuesday.
