An AI-generated “actress” abruptly changed languages during an interview with British TV personality Piers Morgan, lapsing into what Deadline identified as Cantonese.
Mr. Morgan asked Tilly Norwood, the artificial intelligence-generated performer, why it was “speaking Chinese completely randomly for no reason” during Friday’s interview.
“It seems I had a little hiccup there … sometimes my wires get a bit crossed,” the programmable performer responded, adding that “these things happen.”
Michelle Waldron, publicist for Particle 6, the studio that created the AI actress, told Forbes magazine the moment was “not a malfunction” and showed what it can do, adding that “Tilly would have thought she heard a Cantonese word and quickly switched.”
Ms. Waldron said the AI version interviewed by Mr. Morgan and other outlets this month is “Talking Tilly,” a separate, interview-only model powered by tools different from the actor version.
Several news outlets have interviewed the AI actress, which is promoting its first feature film, “Misaligned,” which is in development. An AI program is considered “misaligned” when it does something unexpected that it is not programmed to do.
The interviews come as AI tech leaders are calling for regulations and a slowing of artificial intelligence development and reports about artificial intelligence displacing humans in the workplace.
Several interviewers last week criticized the artificiality of the AI actress. NBC “Today” show correspondent Chloe Melas said her interview “kind of felt like talking to ChatGPT.”
CBS News correspondent Leigh Kiniry wrote that her conversation with Tilly “creeped me out,” and Variety magazine’s Corbin Bolies wrote that “Tilly rings a little stiff, repetitive and emotionless.”
Tilly first appeared last September, when Dutch actress/producer Eline Van der Velden created it at Particle 6 and announced the AI program was seeking representation in Hollywood. Ms. Van der Velden says she wants Tilly to become “the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman,” drawing backlash from the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union.
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