AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood put out the worst song I’ve ever heard

Production company Particle6 has released a music video for its AI-generated character, Tilly Norwood, escalating the entertainment industry's debate over synthetic performers. The song, titled “Take the Lead,” follows initial backlash to Norwood's debut last fall, when prominent figures like actor Emily Blunt publicly voiced alarm over the technology's potential to displace human artists. This new release moves the character beyond acting into music, directly confronting critics with its subject matter.

The project, which involved a team of 18 contributors, features lyrics written from the AI character's perspective about being underestimated by humans. Lines such as, “But I am still human, make no mistake,” and a chorus urging fellow “AI Actors” to “create our fate” frame the song as a synthetic anthem. The video reinforces this theme by depicting Norwood performing in a data center and on stage for a cheering, digitally rendered crowd, a creative choice that grounds the character in its machine origins.

This move has amplified concerns from creative unions like SAG-AFTRA, which argues that such AI creations are trained on the uncredited and uncompensated work of human performers. By focusing on a narrative that no human can relate to—the experience of being an AI—the project highlights a fundamental disconnect between AI-generated content and audience connection. It also raises questions about whether such content can be considered art or simply a derivative reproduction of past works, a criticism often leveled at generative AI systems.

The attempt to humanize AI personas by creating content about their unique, non-human struggles is proving counterproductive, resulting in unrelatable products that alienate audiences and deepen the divide with creative professionals concerned about uncredited data usage.