'AI Is Not the Enemy!' AI Avatar Begs for Acceptance in Suno Music Video
The AI avatar framed as a stand-in for human actors, Tilly Norwood, is now selling music, and begging to be accepted as a viable entertainer as fan dollars hang in the balance.
The UK-based company that has been promoting its Tilly Norwood character as a viable AI actress for months, drawing the attention of Hollywood insiders, has finally released a full video performance of the avatar. Particle6 has released a music video featuring the avatar for a song titled “Take the Lead” on YouTube.
The four-minute video attempts to take a Taylor Swift approach to the music video genre by including dance numbers, multiple locations, and visuals of the avatar globetrotting through various fantastical settings. However, the visuals are where the Swift reference stops, as the song was created using Suno, which is immediately obvious based on the sound and formulaic delivery.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the video is the hook, during which the avatar sings, “AI is not the enemy.” That lyrical entreaty reveals that the creators behind the avatar understand the simmering disdain for AI avatars and video that has been brewing in the entertainment business from many who have not only trained to create human-made art, but in many cases had their art and performances used to train AI models without consent or compensation.
According to Particle6 CEO Eline Van der Velden, in an op-ed published in January by Variety, the avatar was trained “using only publicly available tools and without referencing or training on the work of any specific performer. We didn’t train any systems to create Tilly.” The op-ed was published not long after a major anti-AI campaign was released by over 700 industry insiders, including Scarlett Johansson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Billy Corgan, Cate Blanchett, Sean Astin (the new president of SAG-AFTRA), and Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Pluribus).
Last year, when first presented with images of the Tilly avatar, actress Emily Blunt said, “Good Lord, we’re screwed. That is really, really scary. Come on, agencies, don’t do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection.”
In the first two hours of the video’s release, most of the comments from viewers were negative. So far, this has been a common reaction to various AI projects, such as NBA star James Harden’s recent mini-biography AI video and a recent AI advertising campaign from luxury fashion brand Gucci.
“Our team is not permitted to reference any copyrighted material or upload any non-licensed content to open systems,” claimed Van der Velden in her op-ed. “When we make digital twins, it is always with consent and fair compensation. Our goal is clear: We want to innovate with AI while respecting intellectual property.”
When SAG-AFTRA first got a look at Tilly, the organization immediately took aim at the AI avatar’s legal viability. “‘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,” the organization wrote. “It creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”
Last month, when asked about how the Particle6 AI avatar was trained, Van der Velden told the New York Post, “People think that we’ve taken actors, and we’ve trained Tilly on actors. That’s not at all how it works. We use publicly available systems — LLMs that have been trained on publicly available data.”
But that statement elides the fact that most “publicly available” LLMs trained on “publicly available data” have indeed been trained on the performances of human actors, directors, and crew who do not participate in profits from these AI models. For some, this is merely an ethical issue, but for others, like SAG-AFTRA and its members, it’s a legal issue with financial implications. An issue that is currently being negotiated between the actors’ union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the organization representing major Hollywood studios. Companies like Particle6 may eventually be compelled to account, perhaps even financially, for this training data issue at some point in the near future.
While it’s unclear exactly what specific process and model data Particle6 uses to generate its AI avatar, Suno has been repeatedly cited as an AI model trained on human-made music without permission. Therefore, at least for this music video, Van der Velden appears to be indirectly violating her pledge to “respect intellectual property,” made in her statement earlier this year.
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