By: Minka Koskinen

October 2, 2025

If you give AI the prompt to create a “generically attractive white girl that looks like she is still a year away from graduating high school,” you would probably get something that looks like Tilly Norwood. What is Tilly Norwood? It is an AI-generated character whose prompt creator, Eline Van der Velden, stated, “We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that’s the aim of what we’re doing.” An incredibly reductive comment to the hard work and passion these women have put into their craft, which says a lot about how Van der Velden views women.

Mary Wilson, known for her role as Matilda, commented, “And what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her? You couldn’t hire any of them?” which brings up the ethics of AI. AI has been fed thousands, if not millions, of stolen art pieces, including but not limited to movies, screenplays, paintings, novels and music. This includes the people who are in these original human-made crafts. This means that those acting in movies fed into the AI have had their faces stolen and mixed into a giant AI washing machine to create the abomination that is Tilly. Van der Velden calls ChatGPT “sort of a writing partner.” AI is not a “writing partner” but a new way to plagiarize from people who have actual imagination and creativity.

American filmmaker Brian Duffield stated, “Pretty telling that the industry’s first venture into this was to create a teenage girl they could control,” which raises a very real concern. A short from Van der Velden’s AI production studio, Particle 6, features a scene where one of the AI-generated characters made a joke about AI not being able to give consent in love scenes. Alarm bells. Tilly’s generated appearance definitely feels like someone who has not graduated high school. With the studio already releasing content joking about consent, one can only imagine how it may be implemented.

Understandably, Tilly’s debut has led many actual talented actors and actresses to speak out.

There has been no comment from “The Graham Norton Show,” which was referenced and shown in the promotional video released for Tilly Norwood.

Van der Velden has doubled down amidst the controversy and has stated that Tilly will be signed by an agency “in the coming months.” However, there has been no word or evidence to support whether it will be signed to an agency.

While some may view AI as a way for filmmakers and other creatives to work around paying for A-list acting talent, many seem to forget there are great up-and-coming actors and actresses who don’t cost a fortune and are working toward their craft. AI doesn’t just steal jobs at tech companies, instead, it steals jobs from artists and, as a result, is killing art.

While some studios, agencies and individuals may be enticed to use generated characters that can’t say no and generate screenplays without using any of their own imagination, AI is the poison people like Eline Van der Velden drink eagerly, dumping it into the water supply. It is up to us whether we choose to drink along with her.