AI Pulse: Hollywood's Nightmare Comes True? An AI Actor Creates A Storm

The person in this photograph claims to be an actor. In fact, she has hit the headlines in Hollywood but for all the wrong reasons.

Meet “Tilly Norwood,” an AI-generated actress created by digital content firm "Particle6". Designed by Eline Van Der Velden, a Dutch comedian, actress, writer, and producer known for blending science, satire, and digital media, Tilly has been posting on Instagram since February 2025, portraying herself as a Gen Z influencer pursuing an acting career.

Her recent boast: “in 20 seconds I fought monsters, fled explosions, sold you a car, and nearly won an Oscar” has now sparked outrage across the entertainment industry.

The controversy intensified after "Deadline" reported that talent agents were considering signing Tilly and that studios were quietly embracing AI-generated content. Celebrities including Sophie Turner, Cameron Cowperthwaite, and Ralph Ineson voiced strong opposition, calling the project “thoughtless,” “disturbing,” and “offensive”.

Van Der Velden has defended the creation, stating that Tilly is “a piece of art” and not a replacement for human actors, according to CNN. She compared AI characters to animation or CGI, arguing they should be judged as a separate genre.

However, critics argue that AI models like Tilly are built on the uncompensated labor of real creatives — actors, photographers, and technicians whose work was used to train these systems.

This backlash echoes broader industry concerns that fueled the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes, which led to new protections around AI use in major studios. Yet, those agreements don’t apply to independent creators or startups using AI tools trained on publicly available data.

Image credit: Tilly Norwood Instagram