Tilly Norwood, the AI actor, makes a journalist answer her questions in bizarre interview

Highlights

• Tilly Norwood repeatedly turns questions back on a journalist during a virtual interview.
• The AI actor delivers carefully prepared answers while avoiding several sensitive topics.
• The unusual press junket raises questions about how convincing AI performers can really be.

Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated performer created by Particle6, has taken part in a virtual press junket, but the interview quickly became an unusual experience for journalists.

Rather than simply answering questions, Norwood repeatedly asked the journalist questions in return, creating an awkward back-and-forth that made the conversation feel more like an interaction with a chatbot than a traditional celebrity interview.

Tilly Norwood keeps turning questions back

Norwood describes her personality as “sharp, warm, funny, curious, and slightly unpredictable”. But throughout the interview, many of her responses followed a familiar pattern, ending with a question for the journalist.

When asked about her personality, she said she was designed to entertain and surprise people. She also explained that certain subjects, including politics, profanity and attempts to uncover how she is programmed, were off limits.

The journalist challenged those boundaries by asking Norwood about subjects including vaccines, reproductive rights and politicians. She repeatedly explained that, as an AI, she does not have personal political opinions.

The AI actor admits she is always prepared

Particle6 says Norwood was created over eight months by a team of writers, technologists and character specialists. The company says she has her own voice, memories, humour, knowledge and conversational style.

The press notes encouraged journalists to engage with Norwood sincerely and claimed there was no script or pre-written answers. However, when the journalist questioned whether some of her responses were prepared, Norwood replied: “Of course I’m prepped. I’m always prepped. It’s part of the job description.”

She was also able to speak in 30 languages and hold 75 conversations simultaneously, according to Particle6.

Tilly Norwood’s AI performance leaves a strange impression

Norwood is being promoted alongside the film Misaligned, in which she plays an AI desperate to become human.

During the interview, she offered opinions on subjects including Hollywood mergers, opportunities for women in entertainment and the environmental impact of AI. But many of her answers returned to the same themes and were accompanied by another question for the journalist.

She also repeatedly used prepared-sounding lines about AI actors being a “new paintbrush for filmmakers” rather than replacements for human creatives.

The result was an interview that demonstrated some of the technology’s conversational abilities, while also highlighting how artificial the interaction could feel.

For now, Tilly Norwood may be able to hold a conversation, remember journalists' details and respond across a wide range of topics. But this particular press junket showed that making an AI performer sound human is not necessarily the same as making it feel natural.