Remember AI “Actress” Tilly Norwood? Her creators were marketing her to talent agencies to book her work. She sings, dances, is cute as a button, and has an English accent. I did a morning update on her and the surrounding outrage, and while I can’t say if she’s gotten any new work, her existence has inspired a dumb idea.
I call it dumb because ‘photoshopping’ has been hiding the truth for decades and AI has simply automated it. Rumor has it that some of the most popular “models” in the porn space are AI-generated. Many of the images you find on Pinterest are AI-modified or altered.
Finding a real thing or person is increasingly difficult, but depending on the thing at this point, what difference does it make? It’s autotune outrage one better and not much different than farmers throwing their wooden shoes into the machine that will replace them, when in fact it will probably just make them more productive.
Job shedding is inevitable in any transition. Creative destruction will do its thing, while markets will inevitably put the displaced to other productive uses. But I can see why the actors are edgy.
The last Hollywood writers’ strike included concessions regarding AI not replacing them. Actors are just looking for the same assurances. The issue with both, however, is that they can’t stop indies and others from using AI to create better, cheaper, faster content that they must compete with.
Analog music recently had a tiny pop-culture boost, but digital took over music, filmmaking, and most everything else. Turntables are quaint, the way a dusty Victrola is curious. Sure, but why do all that work when there’s no need?
People who make movies can save themselves a lot of hassle and money by just using AI.
AI can produce videos containing human-looking actors without breaking a sweat. The cost is a fraction of what it once was. The quality has gone up immensely, while the price tag dropped like a rock. The customary assumption that actual human actors must be used when making a film is fractured. Switching over to the use of AI is viable, sensible, affordable, and exceedingly practical.
The industry is trying to come up with ways to push back that are nothing more than protectionism.
The Tilly Tax (named after AI actress Tilly Norwood) would work this way… Rachel Zegler wants $10 million to star in your movie. The producers do the math and discover that creating an AI leading lady will cost only $5 million. The Tilly Tax would then kick in and mandate the producer to pay a $5 million tax. The idea of this tax is to remove the financial incentive to use AI.
Ok, but no. Anyone who passes such a thing is inviting the producer and their team to move somewhere else. There are simply too many advantages to not dealing with people, especially A-list actors.
“A synthetic AI actor won’t ever show up to work late or be in a foul mood. There aren’t any delays in filming due to the AI actor disagreeing with the director,” Eliot accurately points out. “There aren’t any scandals by an AI actor. Compare this to a human actor who … gets embroiled in some political entanglement or some personally stoked outrage.”
“An AI actor will readily promote the movie,” Eliot adds. “The AI actor can speak in any natural language of interest. You don’t have to hire someone to dub the lines. You can easily make versions for any international market.”
Also, an AI actor is always available for sequels and reshoots.
You can’t march them down a red carpet, nor will they say something stupid that will disenfranchise half your potential audience should they win an award, unless you want them to.
The upsides are tremendous, and younger generations are already digitally programmed for the virtual world.
That’s not all for the good, and I’m not saying there isn’t something to be said for a great human actor experience, but it looks like that will increasingly be relegated to staged plays and musicals. On a stage. In a theater. Real people. Smaller salaries.
A lot of capital could be freed up for more productive purposes than funding the living arrangements of jet-setting social-justice climate activist celebrities living in mansions on stolen land.
