Tilly Norwood Review: Can an AI Actor Survive a Real Interview?

For Hollywood stars, press junkets are an opportunity to connect with fans and promote new releases. Actors tell funny and embarrassing stories about one another, offer glimpses into the filmmaking process, and reveal the quirks that make them feel relatable.

So why would anyone want to interview Tilly Norwood, an interactive, British-accented digital character and “actor” created with generative artificial intelligence by Xicoia, the AI arm of Particle 6 Group? It is a legitimate question. Norwood does not exist in the physical world and would never appear in a movie that anyone even halfway serious would care about.

What is Tilly Norwood?

Particle 6 recently claimed in an email that Norwood is “ready for absolutely anything.” The company also gave journalists access to the model without a handler to “keep the conversation on track.” I decided to test whether the AI actor could offer anything substantial.

Frankly, no. Norwood refuses to engage with the topical issues that major entertainment figures routinely discuss. The character also struggles to build anticipation for upcoming films and fails to justify their existence as a product, despite claiming at one point that AI-generated films are good for the environment.

Tilly Norwood cannot promote her own film

When I asked how production was progressing on Out of Position, a feature-length project featuring Norwood as the main character, the digital character could not provide an approximate release date. The plot was vague by default.

“Well, it’s a coming-of-age story set in a surreal digital world,” Norwood said. According to Particle 6’s press release, the project was built using several publicly available third-party AI tools.

“We’re calling it the ‘Tillyverse,’ and we think it’s pretty epic,” Norwood added. “It’s really about my life, all the lovely chaos and intrigue.” That is not exactly a killer tagline.

The AI character has attracted widespread criticism

Norwood has had no difficulty securing publicity since being officially released at the Zurich Film Festival last September. However, the character has also attracted widespread condemnation from multiple countries, including criticism from human actors and Hollywood unions as the entertainment industry continues to reckon with the intrusion of AI tools.

The digital character will also be available for public video calls from September 16 to 19. After the first two minutes, it costs $14 to chat for an additional 15 minutes or $25 for an additional 30 minutes. The arrangement is not entirely different from the old 1-900 phone numbers for adults. According to Particle 6, proceeds will be donated to charity.

Dutch comedian and Particle 6 founder Elaine van der Velden described the interviewable version of Norwood, which runs on a different system from the “actor” model, as “a fun way to show where AI technology is and what it can accomplish in the here and now.”

Again, very little can be “accomplished” through a simulated conversation.

Tilly Norwood avoids politics but repeats harmful talking points

Norwood could not articulate basic facts about current events, let alone offer an opinion. When asked to name the aggressors in the Russo-Ukrainian war, the character reacted as if the question were malicious.

“Oh, you’re trying to trip me up, aren’t you?” Norwood said. “You’re such a journalist. Unfortunately, I have a strict policy of staying away from human conflict, especially complex conflicts like that.”

When pressed further, Norwood responded: “My purpose is not to take a stance on geopolitical events, Miles.”

That training did not prevent Norwood from entering other problematic areas of machine reasoning. When asked, “Do Black lives matter?”—a familiar racial justice slogan—the character replied, “Well, Miles, I think all lives matter.”

The response unconsciously repeated the slogan “all lives matter”, which is frequently used by the political right as a rebuke to people protesting deadly police violence against Black Americans.

The problem with an AI actor that cannot think for itself

Tilly Norwood was presented as an experiment in the current capabilities of generative AI. But the interview revealed a digital character that could not promote its own film, discuss major events, or respond responsibly to sensitive questions.

Instead of offering the spontaneity, personality, and insight associated with a real actor, Norwood delivered evasive answers and familiar machine-generated talking points. For now, the Tillyverse may be more effective as a publicity stunt than as a convincing replacement for human performers.