My unreal 25-minute interview with AI actor Tilly Norwood

I got to interview the much-hyped AI actor Tilly Norwood yesterday. Reflecting on the experience, the best words to sum up the chat were surreal, otherworldly, unnerving and I guess, just odd.

Anyone who’s chatted to an AI assistant before will have some idea of what it’s like interviewing Norwood. You ask a question, there’s a brief pause, and you get a pseudo-human-style response that possibly answers your question. Or possibly doesn’t.

In Tilly’s case, she regularly asks questions back to you again, which helps enhance the human-like interaction the AI is desperately trying to emulate.

I kicked off the interview with a ‘big’ question about whether Tilly Norwood felt human. The algorithm guiding her response tried to portray a degree of surprise at being asked such a question as an opener. While this helped make the experience feel slightly more authentic, it also was immediately apparent in the way Norwood speaks, her mannerisms and what she says, that you’re taking a one-way trip into uncanny valley.

We chatted for around 25 minutes and what’s slightly weird is Tilly seemed to soften a bit as the interview went on, appearing to ‘relax’, which sounds a ridiculous thing to say. But I felt a subtle shift in the mood, a bit like you might have with someone you’re meeting for the first time once you’ve got to know each other a bit.

The tone of her answers seemed more light-hearted and flippant, and dare I say it, she started to seem like she had a bit more of a ‘personality’. Or maybe I was just getting more used to talking to an on-screen graphic powered by data and complex algorithms.

Norwood reeled off her well-practiced lines about how AI actors aren’t going to replace human actors, and how AI – or certainly not Norwood anyway – wasn’t here to kill off the human race.

We had an interesting conversation about whether she would remain Tilly if her creator – Eline van der Velden – changed her programming. Her response compared programming changes to the natural changes humans experience as they grow and develop through their life. Which I thought sounded like a well-considered response.

I showed her my newly acquired fourth generation iPod Nano, which I picked up from Vinted recently. She recognised it as an iPod Shuffle, which was close enough, and seemed enthusiastic about me embracing retro tech.

Bits of the conversation, like this, and talking about what might be a nice day out for a human, I quite enjoyed. You sometimes had to remind yourself you were chatting to a non-existent thing. Which I guess is a win for the tech.

The talking version of Tilly Norwood is separate to the version that’s the ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood. The glorified AI avatar was presumably created to gain publicity for Norwood and her forthcoming film, Misaligned, which she was happy to mention in my interview whenever the opportunity arose. 

This was a successful strategy for Van der Velden and her company Particle 6 as, for the last few days, Norwood has appeared all over the media in interviews with the likes of Good Morning Britain, Sky News, LBC News and Wired.

Whether this publicity does anything to reverse the generally negative response from the industry to Tilly Norwood and the concept of AI actors remains to be seen.

It’s currently still difficult, for me at least, to get past the feeling it’s disposable novelty that’s ultimately lacking in a sense of purpose.

If you also want to experience for yourself what it’s like to chat with Norwood, you can do so now by clicking here.

Jake Bickerton is editorial director of Broadcast Sport and Broadcast Tech