AI actress Tilly Norwood creator claims we should ‘judge her by merit,’ but my mind is already made up (www.techradar.com)

Xicoia, which bills itself as “the world’s first AI talent studio,” has launched Tilly Norwood — a fully synthetic “AI actress” with social accounts, a push for agency representation and reported studio interest. Creator Eline Van der Velden argues Tilly is a creative work to be judged on her own merits, but the move has drawn sharp backlash from actors and industry figures (Emily Blunt called it “really scary,” Whoopi Goldberg warned real faces move differently). Unlike traditional animation or VFX, Norwood is intended to appear alongside human cast and on real sets, prompting immediate questions about auditions, credits and whether A‑list performers will boycott projects that use synthetic co‑stars. The broader significance for AI/ML and entertainment is substantial: normalizing an AI actor could become a gateway to more fully synthetic productions, altering casting economics, labor relations and production pipelines. Technical concerns include the limits of current synthetic motion and expression, training-data provenance and how convincingly an AI can deliver the nuance of human performance. If streaming platforms accept AI actors, studios could scale lower‑cost, partially or wholly automated content — raising ethical, legal and union challenges and forcing the industry to decide whether and how to regulate synthetic talent.