As Hollywood gears up to celebrate the world’s best actors at this weekend’s Oscars, Tilly Norwood, the world’s first AI actor, is stepping back into the spotlight and rewriting the script!
She’s unveiling her debut musical comedy video ‘Take the Lead’ — a fun, high-energy, pop-meets-musical-theatre anthem calling on actors everywhere to embrace AI not as a threat, but as their next creative superpower.
The music video release comes ahead of Tilly’s official AI acting debut later this year and offers the first tantalising glimpse into the evolving Tillyverse, a new entertainment world – based in the cloud – where AI characters live, interact and work.
‘Take the Lead’ is inspired by a recently published essay written by Eline van der Velden – Tilly Norwood’s creator (and real-life actor behind the AI actor) and CEO of production company Particle6 and AI talent studio Xicoia – as well as the growing industry conversation around AI, led by stars such as Hollywood A-listers Matthew McConaughey and Ben Affleck. The lyrics reflect on last year’s extreme backlash following Tilly’s debut on the global stage, but mostly focus on the humanity and creativity behind Tilly.
With bold vocals, theatrical flair and an unapologetically playful edge, ‘Take the Lead’ showcases Tilly’s personality — confident, cheeky and future-facing – as well as the very convenient reality that, as an AI character, she doesn’t actually need to breathe… which comes in handy when performing such a challenging – or even, some might say, unsingable – anthem.
The thinking behind creating such a musical comedy video is to show how AI technology is rapidly evolving and how Particle6, as leaders in this space, is always testing, learning and using the latest techniques to push creative boundaries with original work. In doing so, the company continues to demonstrate just what’s possible when human creative skills and the latest tech collide – as they did when Tilly was first launched.
‘Take the Lead’ was generated using Suno, with the accompanying video created by the team at Particle6 using a suite of readily available AI tools, combined with its proprietary creative process. New techniques deployed, only available this year, include performance capture – whereby Eline van der Velden actually acted out Tilly’s performance. The team comprised 18 real humans in roles such as executive producer, director, production designer, costume designer, creative prompter, creative technologist, comedy writer, editor, production assistant, production co-ordinator and an actor. The result is proof that powerful AI entertainment isn’t about pushing a button — it’s about vision, storytelling and human craft.
Eline van der Velden, CEO of Particle6 / Xicoia and creator of Tilly Norwood says:“Tilly is, and has always been, a vehicle to test the creative capabilities and boundaries of AI – not take anyone’s job. 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.
“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, judgement and time. In other words: people remain at the heart of it.”
