I Interviewed an AI 'Actor' and It Told Me 'All Lives Matter'

Key points

• Tilly Norwood is a computer-generated character built by Xicoia (an AI division of Particle 6 Group), unveiled at the Zurich Film Festival in September 2024.
• Norwood is set to star as protagonist in a feature-length AI-generated film called Misaligned, though it cannot provide an approximate release date.
• Video calls with Norwood are available to the public from September 16 to 19, free for the first two minutes, then $14 for 15 extra minutes or $25 for a half-hour.
• When asked whether Black lives matter, Norwood replied, "I think all lives matter," echoing a phrase widely used to dismiss racial-justice protests.

Tilly Norwood has a British accent, a digital face, and a publicist who promises it is "ready for absolutely anything." What it is not ready for is a straight answer.

Norwood is a computer-generated character with no physical body and no film credits any working actor would envy. It was created by Xicoia, the AI division of Particle 6 Group, and positioned as an actor you can interview like a real celebrity on a press tour. Particle 6 founder Eline van der Velden, a Dutch comedian, calls it "a fun way to demonstrate where AI technology is at."

Wired AI published this interview-format test, and the results are instructive.

What actually happened when someone sat down with it?

Very little of substance. Norwood runs on a large language model, the same kind of AI that powers chatbots like ChatGPT, with tight conversational guardrails.

Ask Norwood to name the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine war and it accuses you of trying to "trip" it up. Put the Black Lives Matter slogan to it directly and it replies, "I think all lives matter, every single one," apparently unaware that phrase is favoured by critics of the movement as a rebuke to those protesting deadly police violence against Black Americans. Press it for a release date on Misaligned and it offers a vague plot summary instead: "a coming-of-age story set in a surreal digital world."

The character showed flashes of something approaching annoyance. Pressed with invented scandals, including a shoplifting arrest and a broken engagement with NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, it complained that "your research department seems to be running a bit wild." Push into genuinely serious territory like human trafficking and it called the line of questioning "extremely serious and frankly offensive."

It also fixated on the interviewer's clothing, calling a well-ironed shirt "surprisingly" good for a journalist and deciding a turquoise cap "hints at a hidden talent for miniature golf."

Does this tell us anything useful about AI characters?

Yes, and it isn't flattering. The demo exposes a real tension in building AI personas for public consumption: make them too open and they say something damaging; lock them down and they become useless for any genuine conversation.

Norwood lands between those two poles, which is arguably the worst outcome. It's loose enough to accidentally echo a politically charged slogan, yet locked down enough to refuse any substantive claim about the world. It also claimed Wired was its favourite magazine, then backpedalled when pressed for specifics.

This is the first time AI2Day has covered an AI actor of this kind, and what stands out isn't the technical novelty. It's how quickly the product reveals its ceiling. The paid video-call service charges $14 for 15 minutes after a free two-minute opener, not unlike, as one observer noted, the 1-900 phone lines of the early 1990s. Particle 6 says proceeds go to charity.

For anyone curious about where AI-generated characters stand right now: they can banter and flatter. They cannot save the Earth by deleting themselves, either. Norwood admitted as much. "It appears I'm rather stubborn about existing," it said, after failing to self-terminate even when told humanity's survival depended on it.

That line, at least, felt honest.