AI 'Actor' Lands First Starring Role

She already has a music video. Now, the AI "actor" that drew fierce pushback from Hollywood unions and performers last year is headed for the big screen. Tilly Norwood is set to lead her first feature film, a comedy-drama titled Misaligned from AI-focused studio Particle 6, which will pair traditional filmmakers with AI specialists. Set in the "Tillyverse," a bizarre digital realm in the cloud, the film follows Tilly, an AI being who has no body or lived experience of her own but full access to everyone else's. The plot kicks in when a rogue bot from the dark web persuades her to ditch her guardrails and pursue human-like wants and ambitions, Variety reports.

"The more terrifyingly human she becomes, the more famous she gets," leading to "shame that her very being has been built on the whole of humanity," a synopsis reads, per Deadline. Particle 6 CEO Eline van der Velden promises a funny, chaotic, self-aware movie that doubles as a commentary on identity, performance, and real-world anxieties over AI. But the project—in early development, with key collaborators still being locked in—already has detractors. Noting "generative AI can't really make anything new," Drew Gillis at AV Club sees the plot as "strikingly similar" to that of 2023 megahit Barbie, which takes the main character from Barbieland into the real world.