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ArticleBody: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. https://youtu.be/G7V2Biy3omw 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. More on the AI actor: Creator of “AI Actress” Responds to Near-Universal Backlash
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