SAG-AFTRA Refutes the Idea of ‘AI Actors’ Like Tilly Norwood, Reminds Producers of Contractual Obligations

The people in front of the camera have made their opinion on the possibility of “AI actors” such as Tilly Norwood gaining representation in Hollywood known, with SAG-AFTRA condemning the idea of synthetic performers on Tuesday.

“SAG-AFTRA believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centered. The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics,” the Screen Actors Guild shared in a Tuesday statement.

“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,” they continued. “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.”

“Additionally, signatory producers should be aware that they may not use synthetic performers without complying with our contractual obligations, which require notice and bargaining whenever a synthetic performer is going to be used,” their message concluded.

More to come…

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