The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA has published a statement to condemn the potential attempts to sign the AI-generated actor Tilly Norwood to a Hollywood agency.

Controversy was sparked recently at the Zurich Film Festival when Eline Van der Velden, the founder of the AI company Particle 6 Productions, announced that she is launching Xicoia, the world’s first talent studio for AI generation. As part of this, she also revealed that she is seeking representation for Norwood, a technology-generated actor.

Following outrage from across the industry over this development, Van der Velden was forced to clarify in a subsequent Instagram post that Norwood “is not a replacement for a human being,” but the condemnation has now stretched as far as the actors’ union.

In a statement released via its social media channels on September 30th, SAG-AFTRA said: “The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics. 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 continued by adding: “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,” before noting, “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.”

SAG-AFTRA then also seemingly attempted to warn movie producers against using AI actors such as Norwood in their productions, reminding them that they would have to consult with and comply with the union’s regulations if this were to become the case.

The threat of AI has become a major issue facing the industry in recent years, with SAG-AFTRA being at the forefront of the issue in the 2023 writers’ strike, which focused on the technology potentially decimating the industry.

However, despite the criticisms against her, Van der Velden attempted to defend her work in her Instagram post over the weekend, saying, “Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance.”