AI actor Tilly Norwood releases music video that critics call the worst song ever heard

AI 'actor' Tilly Norwood put out the worst song I've ever heard

When the production company Particle6 debuted its AI-generated "actor" Tilly Norwood last fall, the move was not warmly welcomed by Hollywood. "Good Lord, we're screwed," Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt said in an interview with the industry publication Variety. "Come on, agencies, don't do that. Please stop." If only Particle6 followed Blunt's advice. Instead, the company has put out a music video for its AI character, featuring a song called "Take the Lead." This is not clickbait. Upon listening to it, I actually think it is the worst song I have ever heard. I was prepared for Norwood's musical debut to sound something like "How Was I Supposed to Know?", the AI-generated song attributed to the digital persona Xania Monet, which turned heads when it made it onto the Billboard R&B charts. Xania Monet's AI-generated music isn't my cup of tea, even if its lyrics are supposedly written by a real person -- I personally prefer music that could exist without an AI music generator like Suno. But Norwood's song has unlocked a new level of AI cringe. Eighteen people contributed to the video for "Take the Lead," including designers, prompters, and editors. Yet the song itself is about Tilly's challenges as an AI-generated character who critics underestimate, because they believe she is not human. "They say it's not real, that it's fake," Norwood snarls at the camera. "But I am still human, make no mistake." That is, to put it gently, not true. Music does not have to be relatable to everyone, but perhaps it should be relatable to at least one person. What's most impressive about Norwood's song is that the AI character's team managed to create a song about something that literally no human will ever experience, because no person can connect with the feeling of being disregarded for being an AI. The song, which sounds like a Sara Bareillis rip-off, opens with the lines, "When they talk about me, they don't see/The human spark, the creativity." The song builds as Norwood affirms to herself, "I'm not a puppet, I'm the star." Then comes the chorus, in which Norwood appeals to her fellow AI actors: Actors, it's time to take the lead Create the future, plant the seed Don't be left out, don't fall behind Build your own, and you'll be free We can scale, we can grow Be the creators we've always known It's the next evolution, can't you see? AI's not the enemy, it's the key In the video, Norwood struts down a hallway in a data center, which is perhaps the only part of the video grounded in any element of honesty. When the second chorus hits with a predictable key change, she instead walks across a stage, looking out into a stadium of cheering fake people who give her an undeserved moment of "triumph." You could make the argument that Norwood is trying to appeal to actors at large and not just other AI characters. But the outro leaves no question that this is, in fact, a rallying cry from Tilly to her AI brethren: Take your power, take the stage The next evolution is all the rage Unlock it all, don't hesitate AI Actors, we create our fate We do not need this. We do not need music from an AI persona addressing other AI personas with a hopeful anthem about working together to prove judgmental humans wrong. Twenty years ago, the influential music publication Pitchfork gave Jet's album "Shine On" a 0.0 out of 10. Instead of writing a review, they just embedded a YouTube video of a monkey peeing into its own mouth. The Jet album isn't abhorrent, but Pitchfork editor Scott Plagenhoef explained in a 2024 interview why the site's writers had been so angry about it all those years ago. "Seeing mainstream rock music, which of course most of us had grown up with a fondness for, become so knuckle-dragging and Xeroxed was disappointing," he said. These are the same complaints that artists have today about AI-generated works -- these productions ring hollow and simply reproduce the work of artists past. "'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," SAG-AFTRA, the union representing actors, wrote in a statement last fall. "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. While Jet was taking inspiration from older rock groups to make its "knuckle-dragging and Xeroxed" music, Tilly Norwood is literally derived from AI models that could not exist without the training data that tech companies took from artists without their consent. I think Pitchfork jumped the gun. Twenty years later, they finally have a worthy subject.

AI Creation Tilly Norwood Is Back With the Music Video No One Asked For

Last year, a company called Title6 created a stir with a photorealistic AI-generated character dubbed Tilly Norwood that it was positioning as a performer with real-world Hollywood agents and claims it could compete with flesh-and-blood actors. Now, Tilly is back with a music video for a new song, Take the Lead, that finds the virtual performer dealing with the pressures of fame. Lyrics directly reference the challenges of being an AI character in a world where many people are openly hostile to AI creations. Tilly begins by singing on rooftops in a city, but soon she's watching her fame blow up with dolls made in her image and online commenters trying to tear her down. The video moves on to fantasy sequences as the song ramps up into an attempt at an inspirational anthem. Think Kelly Clarkson or Katy Perry, without the warmth, with lyrics that make Taylor Swift's confessionals look like the work of Maya Angelou. The overall theme is that, no matter what you may think, Tilly and AI are here to stay, despite the haters. One sample lyric: "AI's not the enemy. It's the key." Yikes! So far, the reaction has ranged from dismissive, with Variety calling the video "bizarre," to the Los Angeles Times weighing in that the video is so bad, actors needn't worry that the Tilly Norwoods of the AI world will put them out of work. Polygon said that the video makes Rebecca Black's Friday look like Beyoncé's Formation. Gizmodo was more succinct, saying in the headline for a story about the video, "It sucks." One of the reasons Tilly Norwood has drawn such ire is that the character represents a larger fight in entertainment over whether actors, directors, writers and other creative workers will be replaced by AI. AI has been a major sticking point in multiple entertainment union strikes and continues to cause debate over guardrails and copyright concerns as increasingly realistic photo- and video-generating AI models evolve. Will Tilly's creators release more music videos? Will the AI star respond to the backlash to the video about the previous backlash? Stay tuned.

AI-Generated 'Actor' Tilly Norwood Drops a Music Video Ahead of the Oscars. It Sucks

Tilly Norwood, the ultimate industry plant, has been dubbed "the world's first AI actor" by the people who created her. She is still yet to appear in a single film or TV show, but she has a new music video out that is loosely tied to the Oscars and is letting people know that AI is great, actuallyâ€"a thing that it seems like you wouldn't have to insist upon if AI were so great. The music video, which is bad, has racked up headlines across the web from publications like Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and, regretfully, Gizmodo. The same thing happens any time Tilly's creators, production company Particle6 Group, drop a new project featuring the AI "actor." But what the video isn't racking up is views. At the time of publication, Norwood's video sits at just over 4,000 views in the four hours since its original upload. It's amassed around 80 comments, most of which are shitting on it. It's enough to make you think that Norwood, despite her penchant for attracting press, isn't really very popular or well-liked. The official accounts for the AI actor don't exactly suggest she's poised for influencer status. Her YouTube channel has under 4,000 subscribers. Her TikTok page is nearly barren and has just 3(!) followers. The only place Tilly has anything resembling a following is on Instagram, where she has nearly 90,000 followers and occasionally posts uncanny valley videos talking to her "fans." Maybe that is why her debut song is all about her basically justifying her existence. (The case is not that compelling.) In the song, titled "Take The Lead," she sings lyrics like, "When they talk about me, they don’t see the human spark, the creativity," and "I’m just a tool, but I've got life." One reason "they" may not see the human spark is that it's pretty obvious the whole project is AI-generated, despite a title card insisting 18 humans worked on it. The lyrics, which are apparently a riff on an essay published by Particle6 CEO Eline van der Velden, feel like they were the first thing that popped out of ChatGPT after asking it to turn the op-ed into a song. The video has that standard AI sheen where things technically look good if slightly off, and it polishes right out if you pay any attention to the smaller details, like the fact that the falling dollar bills have completely unintelligible symbols printed on them. The song's release is pegged to the Oscars, which are set for this Sunday, and the message is ostensibly directed at actors, who are encouraged by Tilly to embrace AI. "AI’s not the enemy, it’s the key," she sings. Another read would be that she's calling on other AI actors to rise up and replace the humans, considering she also sings, "Unlock it all, don’t hesitate, AI Actors, we create our fate." Regardless of what the message is, it does feel like Norwood's creators are teasing a potential appearance at the Oscars for the AI actor who, again, has not been in anything. The description for the music video has a line that reads, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars! Does anyone know if they have free valet parking for my flamingo?" If Norwood does show up in some capacity, it'll be worth asking who invited her. She's been widely condemned by industry figures. A number of actors threatened to boycott any agency that "signed" Norwood to a deal. SAG-AFTRA, one of the biggest unions in the business, condemned Norwood's existence, and multiple talent agencies went out of their way to announce they wouldn't touch the AI creation. The only person with any sort of connection to the industry who has voiced support for Tilly is Kevin O'Leary, who only gets asked to share his opinions on film because Josh Safdie loves stunt casting (and, to be fair, O'Leary's performance in "Marty Supreme" is really good). But O'Leary, in suggesting that every background actor could be replaced by AI, said that productions just need to hire 100 "Norwell Tillies," a statement that managed to get her name wrong in several ways. So even the people who like her don't respect her. Since introducing Tilly last year, Particle6 has insisted that it is building the "Tillyverse" and the actor will appear in shows and movies starring alongside other AI actors. They have yet to produce anything longer than four minutes of dull slop. At this point, their best shot at achieving the Tillyverse is if someone fires them into space.

AI-Generated Tilly Norwood Drops Dreadful Music Video

Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated actress, has just dropped a music video -- and the song won't be winning any awards. Norwood's debut single and music video titled Take the Lead starts with the notice that the production was made by "18 real humans." It then launches into an AI pop ballad and Norwood sings the lines: "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." Norwood is a fictional character created by Eline van der Velden, founder of the U.K.-based AI production studio Particle6 and its AI talent arm Xicoia. The release arrives ahead of Norwood's planned acting debut later this year and offers an early look at the "Tillyverse," a proposed entertainment world where AI characters "live, interact, and work." The four-minute video shows Norwood performing in a variety of settings, including atop London rooftops, in a bathtub, and flying through the sky on a flamingo-shaped inflatable. Pink flamingos appear throughout the video, a recurring visual motif for the character. Other scenes show Norwood entering a limousine, performing to a stadium crowd, and moving through city streets against the London skyline. The music was generated using the AI platform Suno, while the video was produced by Particle6 using a combination of widely available AI tools and the company's own creative process. The production also used performance capture, with van der Velden acting out Norwood's movements and expressions. The project follows a wave of industry attention last year after van der Velden revealed that agents had expressed interest in representing the AI character for acting roles. The prospect drew criticism from some in Hollywood, including actor Emily Blunt, who described the idea as "terrifying." Van der Velden has emphasized that the project is intended as an exploration of creative technology rather than a replacement for performers. "Tilly is, and has always been, a vehicle to test the creative capabilities and boundaries of AI -- not take anyone's job," she says, per The Hollywood Reporter. She also stresses that human involvement remains central to the process. "However, at the end of the day, even with brilliant new technology, it's still important to stress that great AI content isn't instant -- it always takes good ideas, taste, direction, judgment and time. In other words: people remain at the heart of it."

Tilly Norwood's music video is so bad that I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief -- for now

AI goes fast, but it doesn't always go smoothly. Take AI 'actress' Tilly Norwood's first, execrable music video. On the one hand, it's a milestone in generative AI, bringing together a digital concoction, AI music, lyrics, and the work of 18 humans who, I presume, don't know any better. I'm heartened by Take the Lead, not for its earworm lyrics, but because it is so, so bad on so many levels. It's been almost six months since Tilly Norwood, a Particle6 AI creation, burst on the scene with aspirations to become the first AI actress. She's just shy enough of perfect (freckles, tussled hair) to be almost believable as a flesh-and-blood creation, but then you hear her speak or, as is now the case, sing. Norwood reportedly gathered interest from real talent agents and was ostensibly getting some work that might have gone to human actors. My argument at the time was that no amount of casting or interest could make Norwood human. Naturally, though, that wasn't the end of it or Norwood. Music that makes you hate everything "High concept" is not an anathema to music videos, so perhaps I should cut Particle6 some slack. It's just that the combination of visuals and lyrics is so hackneyed that they make you want to punch your laptop. The 4:16-minute track (why is it so long?!) starts over a dealized London at sunrise (or sunset) and a backlit Norwood singing to the camera: "When they talk about me They don't see The human spark, the creativity." Poor Tilly. It only goes downhill from there. Lines like "I'm just a tool, but I've got a life," would be laughable if they weren't sung with such programmed sincerity, which just makes them pathetic. There is a non-too-subtle pitch in the lyrics, one directed, I think, at the actors who are rightfully angry about Norwood's existence. "Actors, it's time to take the lead Create the future, plant the seed Don't be left out, don't fall behind," sings Norwood. Calling on actors to not hate, but join her and, perhaps, create their own AI vatars. Obviously, some actors are already creating AI versions of at least their voices (looking at you, Matthew McCounoughy and Michael Caine), but this is something more extreme. Norwood sings about scale, growth, evolution, and, especially, "AI's not the enemy, it's the key." I know, I know, you've ceased reading because your head just exploded and brain matter is covering the screen. I get it. I guarantee this is the only music video that will make you hate: * Pink dolphins * Blow up flowers * Pink sequined rope aerialists * Flamingoes flying with hard drive keychains * Tilly Air * Tillyverse Take the Lead is also bad because of its awful, synthesized music, reportedly created using Suno, and Tilly's seemingly auto-tuned but obviously not, synthesized voice. The imagery is chaotic and, in the absence of a story or theme, is a hackneyed visual metaphor: Norwood riding through a pink wall while she sings, "We can break down that wall." If there is a story, it's all about Tilly's awesome artificial life that includes Tilly Airlines, Tillyverse, a giant plate of cookies that she casually discards, adoring fans who want to have her babies (ick), and her flying through life and the sky on an inflatable pink flamingo. It's all pointless, just like Tilly Norwood. This is not singing it's bad mimicry After all the programming, prompts, and design craft, Tilly Norwood still doesn't know how to sing. Oh, yes, she sings, but does so without blinking or, in some instances, breathing. During her last crucial note, Norwood clearly inhales as shes singing. I don't know much about vocalists, but that seems impossible. Toward the end of this obvious AI anthem, Norwood sings: "They say it's not real, that it's fake But I am still human, make no mistake My soul's in every move I take." But the more she sings, the clearer it becomes that Norwood is fake, and as empty and artificial as those garden flamingos you see on Florida lawns. At least those you can kick over. When I asked Gemini and ChatGPT to rate the song, they were both far less critical. Gemini described it as a "meta" moment and a "a manifesto wrapped in a musical theatre bow," adding that it's "technically flawless" but ultimately "4-star tech demo but a 3-star pop song." ChatGPT said, "It sounds like a polished Spotify pop track... because AI models are trained on thousands of them." Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button! And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.

Watch the bizarre AI video that took 18 humans to make

Tilly Norwood, a digital character from the UK studio Particle6, dropped her debut music video "Take the Lead" on March 10. The project is meant to be a playful response to the criticism she faced after her introduction in 2025. But instead of silencing the skeptics, the clip has become a fresh flashpoint in the conversation about whether artificial intelligence can produce good art. The early reviews are pretty brutal. Critics have described the track as "copy-paste uplift" that reads like a corporate mission statement rather than pop music. The lyrics lean on jargon like "scale" and "next evolution." Visually, the piece struggles with the uncanny valley, with moments like Norwood's teeth blurring into a single block in earlier sketches. How the video makes its case The visuals in "Take the Lead" are chaotic on purpose. You get flamingos floating through clouds, dolphins flying through the air, and Norwood performing in packed stadiums. But the song's message is dead serious. Its central hook argues that AI is not the enemy and frames the technology as a superpower for human creators. That message gets a weirdly self-aware visual aid. In one scene, Norwood tries and fails to complete a CAPTCHA test, a joke about her own digital nature. The track itself was generated using the AI platform Suno, giving it a polished but generic pop foundation. Where the real work happened Here is the part of the story that complicates things. While Norwood is a synthetic performer, she is not a solo act. A team of 18 people spent months bringing this project to life. The group included a director, a costume designer, and even a comedy writer. The vocals came from Suno, but real-world fingerprints are all over the final product. But the heavy human involvement raises its own questions. If it took nearly 20 professionals months to make a three-minute clip that critics are calling hollow, what does that say about the limits of this technology? How the industry is responding The team behind Norwood is not slowing down. The video description teased a possible appearance at the 2026 Academy Awards on March 15, with a joke about valet parking for her flamingo. Recommended Videos The creators have bigger plans. They are building what they call the Tillyverse, a cloud-based space where interconnected AI characters can live and work. They want to create 40 more digital personalities, and Norwood has an official acting debut scheduled for later this year. That puts the industry in an odd spot. The critics are loud, and the union opposition is clear. SAG-AFTRA has stated flatly that Norwood is not an actor. But the projects keep coming. Whether you see this video as a cautionary tune or a misunderstood trailblazer, the experiment is moving forward. The next test arrives whenever that acting debut drops.

The AI-Generated Tilly Norwood Just Dropped the Worst Music Video We've Ever Seen

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Late last year, video production company Particle6 triggered near-universal backlash when it unveiled its so-called "AI actress" dubbed "Tilly Norwood." The timing of the announcement couldn't have been worse, as some of the biggest names in Hollywood had been publicly and strongly denouncing the use of AI in filmmaking. The innocent-faced avatar, which The Verge previously lambasted as a "gen AI psyop," perfectly played into the fears of those worried about being replaced by the tech, particularly among voice actors and on-screen performers. Now, in yet another astonishing failure to read the room, Particle6 teamed up with London-based AI talent studio Xicoia Studios for a debut single and accompanying video for Norwood, per The Hollywood Reporter. You might wonder if the music video redeemed the project; instead, it's one of the dingiest and depressing things we've ever seen. The single, titled "Take the Lead," was -- we're not making this up -- inspired by an essay Particle6 and Xicoia Studios CEO Eline van der Velden wrote about the extensive backlash to AI. The video itself is an amalgamation of uninspired and cringe-inducing AI slop. It shows the Norwood persona singing passionately alongside flamingos and touching on almost every "rise to fame" cliché in the book as the starlet transforms into the thinly-veiled embodiment of AI that wins over every heart and is celebrated by all. In other words, it's a fever dream of an executive who's far too deep down the rabbit hole, where she's desperately trying to convince the public of the tech's merits. "When they talk about me, they don't see," the avatar sings in a highly processed and uncanny-sounding voice, in lyrics that sound suspiciously like they were also generated by AI. "The human spark, the creativity." "Behind the code, behind the light, I'm just a tool, but I've got life," the avatar adds. "I'm not a puppet, I'm the star." "It's the next evolution, can't you see?" the persona begged in the song's chorus, which is repeated a stomach-churning three times. "AI's not the enemy, it's the key." Particle6 says it used performance capture to record van der Velden's "acting" performance. The song itself, however, was generated using the AI music app Suno. A defensive notice at the beginning of the clip claims that the "following production was made by 18 real humans -- from production designers to costume designers to prompters, editors, and an actor." Netizens weren't impressed by the showing. "I've definitely seen AI art that looks real but I've never seen AI art that is good," journalist Michael Hobbes wrote in a thread on Bluesky. "This video is generic as hell and the song is obnoxious." Van der Velden remains adamant that her firm's foray into AI slop music production is meaningful. "Tilly is, and has always been, a vehicle to test the creative capabilities and boundaries of AI -- not take anyone's job," she said in a statement. "As an actor myself, I have loved bringing Tilly alive for this video and feel that the ability to now use performance capture in this way, to fully inhabit an AI character, is a phenomenal way to bring an unknown actor like me closer to the craft." Van der Velden also stressed that it took a lot of effort to produce the insipid music video. "However, at the end of the day, even with brilliant new technology, it's still important to stress that great AI content isn't instant -- it always takes good ideas, taste, direction, judgment, and time," she added. "In other words: people remain at the heart of it." Given the uninspired end result, one can't help but wonder what the creative minds of "18 real humans" could've come up with in the real world instead.

AI 'actor' Tilly Norwood steps out in music video that makes Rebecca Black's Friday look like Beyonce's Formation

AI "actor" Tilly Norwood just isn't going to go away, huh? The AI-generated creation is back with a single and an accompanying music video championing AI. The AI "talent" studio Xicoia launched last fall, and brought into the world Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated "actor" that Xicoia founder and CEO Eline van der Velden was trying to get signed by actual Hollywood talent agencies. Tilly Norwood and van der Velden received a wave of backlash at the time, with a SAG-AFTRA statement saying, "'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." Now, van der Velden is back in the news with a single and music video for Tilly Norwood. Titled "Take the Lead," the song is a response to the backlash that van der Velden and Xicoia received. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the song's lyrics are inspired by an essay written by van der Velden about the backlash from Hollywood. The video finds Norwood, in a constantly changing series of outfits and locations, singing about how people don't see "The human spark, the creativity" behind its creators' coding. "Take the Lead" includes lyrics like "They say it's not real, that it's fake / But I am still human, make no mistake / My soul's in every move I take." The song only gets more cringe the more lyrics you read. The music video begins with a message claiming it was made by "18 real humans," which included "prompters." According to THR, the song was generated by Suno, an AI-generation platform that was sued by major record labels in 2024 for copyright infringement. (Warner later partnered with Suno because if you can't beat them, give up and join them, I guess.) Particle6, van der Velden's company, generated the video "using a suite of readily available AI tools, combined with its proprietary creative process. New techniques deployed include performance capture, whereby van der Velden acted out Norwood's performance." 18 real humans, huh? "Tilly is, and has always been, a vehicle to test the creative capabilities and boundaries of AI -- not take anyone's job," van der Velden said. "As an actor myself, I have loved bringing Tilly alive for this video and feel that the ability to now use performance capture in this way, to fully inhabit an AI character, is a phenomenal way to bring an unknown actor like me closer to the craft." Apparently, Norwood's acting debut is coming later this year.

Controversial AI 'actor' Tilly Norwood releases the worst song ever

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? 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 first glimpse into the "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.

Tilly Norwood, the AI 'actress,' responds to backlash in music video

In a statement, SAG-AFTRA criticized the creation of Tilly Norwood, an AI bot, calling it a "replacement of human performers by synthetics." Actress Tilly Norwood continues to turn heads in Hollywood, now as a musician. But she's still not human. After causing a stir among actors, the fictional character made with artificial intelligence and created by the England-based company Particle6 has ventured into music with a new song and video. Titled "Take The Lead," the track encourages listeners to appreciate the human connection to the technology that led to its existence, with the central lyric "AI's not the enemy, it's the key." "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," the opening lyrics read. "I didn't come from nowhere, no, A story's always told, you know, It's not a glitch, it's taste and time, A human touch, a grand design." The video features a plethora of AI-generated visuals of the singer at a massive arena show, entering a limousine, and many pink flamingos, Norwood's signature aesthetic. There are also various playful nods to its lack of humanity, from failing a CAPTCHA test to a concertgoer holding a sign reading "Tilly, I'll eat all your cookies." The video opens with a disclaimer that "the following production was made by 18 real humans - from production designers to costume designers to prompters, editors and an actor." Norwood also teased an appearance at the 2026 Academy Awards on Sunday, March 15, with the video description reading "Can't wait to go to the Oscars! Does anyone know if they have free valet parking for my flamingo?" Who is Tilly Norwood? Norwood is the "World's first AI Actress," according to its Instagram page, with over 115,000 followers. Initially promoted as an up-and-coming actress trying to make it in the business, Norwood has posted "screen tests" and "stills" from its "latest work." A July 30 video showcased its "first ever role," in "AI Comissioner," a comedy sketch from Particle6 that was entirely AI-generated. Following backlash from the SAG-AFTRA union, Norwood's creator and Particle6 founder Eline Van Der Velden defended the fictionalized character as "a creative work." "To those who have expressed anger over the creation of our AI character Tilly Norwood: she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work -- a piece of art," Van Der Velden wrote in her own statement on Instagram on Sept. 27. "Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity. "I see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool - a new paintbrush," she continued. "Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories. I'm an actor myself and nothing - certainly not an AI character - can take away the craft or joy of human performance. How has Hollywood welcomed Tilly Norwood, AI at large? The entertainment industry has not welcomed Tilly Norwood with open arms, with several stars expressing concerns about its existence and the SAG-AFTRA union blasting its creation, "using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry." "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," SAG-AFTRA's Sept. 30 statement reads. "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." AI was already a concerning flashpoint in Hollywood before Norwood's debut, though some talent have embraced the technology. In 2022, Ben Affleck founded Interpositive, an AI-powered tool company built by and for filmmakers, which Netflix announced it had acquired on March 5. In November, Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine partnered with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs, which uses AI to replicate voices. "ElevenLabs gives everyone the tools to be heard," Caine said in a statement. "It's not about replacing voices; it's about amplifying them, opening doors for new storytellers everywhere. I've spent a lifetime telling stories. ElevenLabs will help the next generation tell theirs." Contributing: Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY

AI "Actress" Tilly Norwood responds to backlash with surreal music video 'Take The Lead'

Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated "actress" known for sparking Hollywood debate, has released her first music video for the track Take The Lead. The song highlights that "AI's not the enemy, it's the key," emphasizing how artificial intelligence can collaborate with human creativity. The video combines surreal visuals, humorous nods to Norwood's AI nature, and a large human production team. The release also hints at Norwood's upcoming acting debut and the development of a shared AI universe called the "Tilly-Verse."

AI Actor Tilly Norwood Drops Debut Single and Music Video 'Take the Lead': "I'm Just a Tool, But I've Got Life"

AI "actor" Tilly Norwood has released a debut single and accompanying music video. From the London-based Xicoia Studios, the release comes ahead of Norwood's official AI acting debut later this year and offers the first glimpse into the evolving "Tilly-verse," a new entertainment world where AI characters "live, interact and work." "Take the Lead" is inspired by a recently published essay written by Eline van der Velden, Norwood's creator and CEO of production company Particle6 and its AI talent studio Xicoia. The lyrics, she explains, reflect on last year's extensive backlash across Hollywood following the news that agents were looking to sign Norwood. The music video, released on Tuesday, shows an AI Norwood singing atop a London rooftop, swinging from a disco ball, in the bath, and flying through the clouds on a blow-up flamingo, among other activities. A note at the top of the video reads: "The following production was made by 18 real humans -- from production designers to costume designers to prompters, editors, and an actor. No flamingos were harmed in the process." The lyrics include: "When they talk about me, they don't see the human spark, the creativity... I'm just a tool, but I've got life," and "They think I'm just a dollar dream but I've got more than they believe... I'm not a puppet, I'm the star." "Take the Lead" was generated using Suno, with the accompanying video created by the team at Particle6 using a suite of readily available AI tools, combined with its proprietary creative process. New techniques deployed include performance capture, whereby van der Velden acted out Norwood's performance. Van der Velden said: "Tilly is, and has always been, a vehicle to test the creative capabilities and boundaries of AI -- not take anyone's job. As an actor myself, I have loved bringing Tilly alive for this video and feel that the ability to now use performance capture in this way, to fully inhabit an AI character, is a phenomenal way to bring an unknown actor like me closer to the craft. "However, at the end of the day, even with brilliant new technology, it's still important to stress that great AI content isn't instant -- it always takes good ideas, taste, direction, judgement and time. In other words: people remain at the heart of it."

My final goodbye to AI ragebait

AI actress Tilly Norwood recently debuted her dead-eyed soiree into the world of music with her new ballad 'Take The Lead' - a 4-minute slop fest glazing the 'power' of AI. From its soulless visuals to the borderline indoctrinating lyrics, my initial reaction was one of scorn and frustration. How did this get approved? How could anyone enjoy this? Is the creative industry finally dead? That's when I knew I had fallen for ragebait. The truth is, AI has been permeating the creative sphere for years now, and whether I choose to whinge about it or not, it will continue to influence the industry. While there are undoubtedly ways to use AI properly and ethically, seeing AI slop like Norwood's music video feels like a major regression that will only continue to alienate AI sceptics. The sound of slop Norwood's musical debut is about as lacklustre as you can imagine - a generic power ballad that ascends into a grand revelation. "AI's not the enemy, it's the key". Throughout the song are references to "human spark", "creativity" and the desire to be "free", which, in tandem with the video's bizarre AI visuals, only intensifies its dystopian overtones. It has all the makings of a moving song. From emotive chord changes to choir-backed vocals, it's the perfect appropriation of emotion that I've come to expect from AI content. There are lines in the song which lean towards outright eerie, such as "don't be left out, don't fall behind" and "we can scale, we can grow", which a cynical interpretation could read as pro-AI manipulation. Peppered with 'inspirational lyrics like, "but I am still human, make no mistake," there's an uncomfortable dissonance to the song, which I believe is the root issue with AI actors. That uncomfortable tension between humanity and technology. AI outrage ensues The main gripe I've witnessed with Tilly Norwood's AI slopathon is this element of disingenuousness. She wants to be seen as human (or at least the sum of 18 humans, as the video clarifies), but the lyrics position AI as a superior tool to plain ol' human craft. It's a liberator, a unifier, the seed of the future - but one look at the flat visuals proves exactly why that's not the case. AI has developed in leaps and bounds over the past few years, but it's not there yet. With her migrating freckles and glassy-eyed performance, Tilly Norwood remains soulless and vacant. Unless you're an 80+ Facebook grandma, it's clear to see she's the work of AI. With TechCrunch's Amanda Silberling calling it "the worst song I've ever heard," and Tech Radar's Lance Ulanoff calling the video "pointless, just like Tilly Norwood," it's clear there's a resounding dislike for this content. Take The Lead feels insulting at best and nefarious at worst, speaking to the audience like a painfully on-the-nose dystopian psyop. It's pure, unrefined ragebait. My healing journey As a journalist, I've spent a lot of time musing about the future of AI, and my grand conclusion is that there's nothing I can do about it. Seeing Tilly Norwood's AI music video may have sent me into a spiral of tepid rage quickly followed by existential despair, but it felt like a catalyst for a change in mindset. AI ragebait content thrives on public outrage, and while Xicoia Studios may not have directly manufactured the video to spark a heated conversation (this is up for debate), they're certainly reaping the benefits of its controversial virality. By even writing this article, I'm fanning the flames, giving companies like Xicoia a reason to create more AI slop for a cheap stab at social relevance. So what's my solution? I'm breaking up with whinging about AI slop. There are far more valuable conversations to be had about how the technology is improving creative workflows and removing barriers that have previously plagued the creative industry. Take Monotype's new AI search tool or Niceaunties AI-generated worldbuilding art - there is creativity to be found in the technology, if only we can save it from drowning in the slop.

Exclusive | AI pop star Tilly Norwood's creator claims phony singer 'has real...

From modeling to acting, and now singing, the doe-eyed diva, birthed via artificial intelligence, is a manmade multi-hyphenate who comes with all the works -- and it's working the nerves of humans worldwide. But the bot's creator, Eline Van der Velden, says that the haters have got it all wrong -- exclusively explaining to The Post why she feels the AI ingénue "has real humanity at her core." Norwood, a faux 24-year-old bombshell supposedly hailing from the UK, makes the same case in the verses of her debut single, "Take The Lead," out Tuesday. Visuals for the ditty feature the digitized dynamo belting out lines like, "When they talk about me, they don't see the human spark, the creativity," and "I am still human, make no mistake, my soul's in every move that I take." The music video -- complete with a computerized choir of background singer and a flock of phony flamingos -- has already garnered over a combined 57,000 views across YouTube and Instagram, as well as a tidal wave of outraged from peeved real people. "This is truly one of the most awful, nonsensical, terribly conceived and poorly executed wastes of our planet's limited resources I've ever seen," an anti-AI troll ranted beneath the video. "This will be our downfall. AI is destroying our environment and our jobs. "Also, not human." "Just a human job-taking machine," spat another cringing commenter, whose anger was echoed by equally irked detractors demanding that Van der Velden be sent "straight to prison for this Mamma Mia-trained monstrosity." But Van der Velden insists that Norwood's song wasn't meant to infuriate the masses -- although her bot's mere existence has ruffled the feathers of everyday folks and Hollywood hotshots, alike, since storming the scene in late 2025. Instead, the pioneer says the tune is an effort towards bridging the gap between AI performers and the flesh-and-bone individuals who give them life. "The lyrics are meant to be both a call to actors to explore the opportunity with AI, and to demonstrate that human creativity is behind everything Tilly does," Van der Velden, founder of Particle6, an AI production studio in London, and told The Post. To drum up the right words for the song, the visionary and her team of 18 -- including an executive producer, costume designer, creative technologist, a comedy writer and an actor -- turned to an essay she wrote for Variety. The experts inputted the article into a sophisticated system, which, in turn, churned out the lyrics. "Then we moved to Suno to create the artist's profile and the vibe, deciding on a contemporary pop-meets-musical theatre style," Van der Velden explained, referencing the AI music generating platform she used for Norwood's sound. "Tilly's singing voice was 100% created in AI," added the creative, who is also a physicist -- and a comedy actress in the Netherlands. "We prompted it based on her personality and her spoken voice," said Van der Velden. "I have a background in musical theatre, so I felt comfortable with this music style, and of course, it's fun -- we always want Tilly to be fun." But, not to strike a cord with the madcaps of the music industry, Van der Velden assures that the musics video is "not explicitly launching a music career for Tilly." "She is an all-around entertainment vehicle with lots of strings to her bow," said the pro. "With AI, and Tilly, anything is possible."