SAG-AFTRA is striking out at the AI-creation following reports that Hollywood is interested in hiring the “Actress” for roles. A post from August appears to be the starting point for which many are getting upset. It goes without saying that the claims made therein not only point to the advantages of hiring an AI-creation, but also the inherent risks to human actors who could never make the same accomplishments in the same time period.
From video games to movies, television, and, as mentioned above, commercials, the potential use of AI-creations in media is boundless and possibly much cheaper than hiring humans for the same jobs. It was just a few days ago that a report stated that the new owners of Electronic Arts stated they were planning to use AI to cut costs for the game publisher. Meanwhile, SAG-AFTRA and many others have a thing or two to say about Tilly Norwood.
Per SAG-AFTRA:
“To be clear, “Tilly Norwood” is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation. It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience. It doesn’t solve any “problem” — it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”
SAG-AFTRA went on to say that signatory producers must still comply with contractual obligations that “require notice and bargaining whenever a synthetic performer is going to be used.”
Actress Emily Blunt expressed her concerns in a podcast with Variety by stating the following:
“Does it disappoint me? I don’t know how to quite answer it, other than to say how terrifying this is, No, are you serious? That’s an AI? Good Lord, we’re screwed. That is really, really scary, Come on, agencies, don’t do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection.”
-Emily Blunt
Whoopi Goldberg added to the conversation during her opening segment on The View in casting doubt on whether an AI creation could truly succeed as a replacement, but also acknowledged the challenges a human actor is presented with. Much like an LLM, an AI-creation is made by training it with data, “you are suddenly up against something that’s been generated with 5,000 other actors,” said Goldberg.
“It’s got Bette Davis’ attitude, it’s got Humphrey Bogart’s lips… And so it’s a little bit of an unfair advantage. But you know what? Bring it on. You can always tell them from us. We move differently, our faces move differently, our bodies move differently.”
-Whoopi Goldberg
Speaking of humans, the person behind creating Tilly Norwood, Eline Van der Velden of Particle6 Productions, has responded to the criticisms being made. Interestingly enough, the statement seems to be a bit of a turnaround from others on Instagram that portray Tilly as an actress for hire who feels very real and has emotions, but is rather a work of art and not intended to replace human actors.
This is in many ways just the beginning. It’s barely been three months since SAG-AFTRA suspended its video game strike, which began in July 2024, following the much more reported on actors’ strike in 2023, both of which had major concerns about the use of AI. It’s clear that the powers that be are interested in the possibility of using AI in their productions, and it’s also clear now that there are creators out there seeking to sell a product to them.