There's been some heated backlash against AI creation Tilly Norwood, and it's only getting worse with the release of the digital avatar's first single...
What’s the most annoying song you’ve ever heard?
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Think about it. Remind yourself of how you recoil in horror whenever you hear its opening chords.
Well, here’s some good news. You can banish the track from the top spot on your shit list, because the worst thing you’ve ever heard is out now, courtesy of the AI creation which refuses to go away.
Tilly Norwood, dubbed the first AI “actor” by Particle6 and AI “talent” studio Xicoia CEO Eline van der Velden, has released a single this week, titled ‘Take The Lead’. It’s the first glimpse into “Tilly-verse”, a new entertainment world where AI characters “live, interact and work.”
So, what’s the song like? Well... It’s audio poison.
Van der Velden has gotten a lot of flack over the launch of Tilly Norwood, but this is a whole new low. The song is a disgruntled response to the extensive backlash she has received, and starts thusly: “When they talk about me, they don’t see / The human spark, the creativity / Behind the code, behind the light / I'm just a tool, but I've got life..."
Adieu, Sylvia Plath. Eat shit, Emily Dickinson. There’s a new poet in town.
“It's not a glitch, it’s taste and time / A human touch, a grand design...”
So, this is how the Great War starts.
“Actors, it’s time to take the lead / Create the future, plant the seed...”
Please stop addressing them like you’re their equal.
As you may have gathered from the screenshots, there’s also an accompanying music video...
While song was generated using the AI music app Suno, Particle6 says it used performance capture to record van der Velden’s “acting” performance. And wouldn't you know it, it's the very definition of AI slop.
It begins with a message claiming it was made by "18 real humans," which included "prompters", and sees Norwood attempting to go full Taylor Swift. She struts onto the stage in a packed stadium and demonstrates quite to what extent she’s as bland as unseasoned tofu.
There are also snippets of Norwood swinging from a disco ball, appearing on a talk show, signing autographs, and wearing knockoff Katy Perry outfits – all to chart the pseudo-empowerment “rise to fame” narrative of a starlet finding her voice.
Then, it drops acid, with inflatable flamingos, cloud cities and dolphins.
We're not making this up, and the more you watch and listen to it, the more you wish the earth would swallow you whole.
We hesitate to include it, but check out the video for yourself:
‘Take The Lead’ also has a petulance to it, progressively revealing itself as an insipid but alarming piece of AI propaganda.
“Don’t be left out, don’t fall behind / Build your own and you’ll be free”; “AI’s not the enemy, it’s the key / It’s not a trick, it’s just the start”; and “They say it’s not real, that it’s fake / But I am still human, make no mistake.”
Stomach-churning.
Even more baffling is the caption of the music video, which seems to suggest that the Tilly Norwood creators are eager to ride the Oscar wave and are desperate for some publicity...
"Can't wait to go to the Oscars! Does anyone know if they have free valet parking for my flamingo?"
Please read the room. Your cringe-inducing and obnoxious slop is ripe for parody and makes the world a much darker place.
The slim silver lining in all of this? If the aim was to convince people that AI “actors” have their place in Hollywood, this embarrassing tech demo stunt is the very definition of sabotage. The music and video are so awful that real life performers can still sleep soundly, secure in the fact that AI won’t be replacing them any time soon.
However, the flipside is that Tilly Norwood and its creators continue to represent a larger fight regarding fears over AI replacement and the lack of guardrails when it comes to copyright infringement and theft.
As SAG-AFTRA said in a statement released last year: “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.”
Norwood’s presence coincides with the unwelcome rise of AI in creative fields, with countless AI music avatars – from The Velvet Sundown and Xania Monet to Breaking Rust and Solomon Ray, to name but a few – plaguing streaming sites.
Worryingly, studies have shown that listeners are finding it trickier to distinguish real music from AI slop...
‘Take The Lead’ is another unfortunate step in the wrong direction.
Alarmingly, the cyber herpes that is Tilly Norwood is not disappearing any time soon. It will return. The song release comes ahead of Norwood’s official AI acting debut this year.
For your consideration for the 2027 Oscars?
Doubtful. Just keep playing with your digital flamingos and leave us alone.
