When production company Particle 6 debuted AI-generated “actor” Tilly Norwood last fall, the move was not warmly received by Hollywood.
“Lord, we’re a mess,” Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt said in an interview with trade publication Variety. “Hey, agency, don’t do that. Please don’t do that.”
If only Particle6 had followed Blunt’s advice. Instead, the company released an AI character music video featuring the song “Take the Lead.”
This is not clickbait. When I actually listened to it, I think it’s the worst song I’ve ever heard.
I was prepared for Norwood’s musical debut to be something like “How Was I Supshed to Know?” The song is an AI-generated song said to be written by digital figure Zania Mone, and it gained attention when it appeared on Billboard’s R&B chart. I don’t like Xania Monet’s AI-generated music, even if the lyrics were written by an actual human. I personally prefer the music that could exist without an AI music generator like Suno. But Norwood’s song took AI disgust to a new level.
The “Take the Lead” video involved 18 people, including designers, teleprompters, and editors. However, the song itself is about Tilly’s challenges as an AI-generated character who is underrated because critics believe she is not human.
“They say it’s not real, it’s fake,” Norwood yells into the camera. “But I’m still human, don’t get me wrong.”
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I mean, to put it kindly, it’s not.
Music doesn’t have to resonate with everyone, but it probably should resonate with at least one person. What’s most impressive about Norwood’s songs is that the team of AI characters was able to literally create a song about something that humans would never experience. Because no one can relate to the feeling of being ignored because you’re an AI.
The song, which sounds like a Sara Bareilles rip-off, begins with the line, “When they talk about me, they don’t see / Human brilliance, creativity.” The song grows as Norwood tells himself, “I’m not a puppet, I’m a star.”
Then comes the chorus in which Norwood appeals to his fellow AI actors.
Actors, it’s time to take control.
Create the future, sow seeds
Don’t be left behind, don’t fall behind
Build it yourself and you’ll be free
Possible to expand and grow
Be the creator we’ve always known
It’s the next evolution, can’t you see?
AI is not the enemy, it’s the key
In the video, Norwood struts down the hallways of a data center, perhaps the only part of the video that has an element of sincerity. As the second chorus begins with the expected key change, she instead walks across the stage and looks out at the stadium of cheering fake people who have given her a moment of undeserved “victory.”
You could also make the argument that Norwood is trying to appeal to the whole actor, not just the other AI characters. But the outro leaves no doubt that this is actually Tilly’s rallying cry to her AI friends.
Give your strength to the stage
The next evolution is all the rage
Unlock everything, don’t hesitate
AI actors, we create our destiny
This is not necessary. We don’t need music in which AI personas speak to other AI personas in hopeful anthems of working together to prove judgmental humans wrong.
Twenty years ago, the influential music publisher Pitchfork gave Jett’s album “Shine On” a score of 0.0 out of 10. Instead of writing a review, I just embedded a YouTube video of a monkey peeing in its own mouth. The Jet album isn’t abhorrent, but in a 2024 interview, Pitchfork editor Scott Plagenhof explained why the site’s writers have been so angry about it for years.
“Of course, Xerox was disappointed to see that the mainstream rock music that most of us grew up loving became so joint-pulling,” he said.
These are the same complaints artists have today about AI-generated work. These pieces sound empty and simply reproduce the work of past artists.
“‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor; she is a character generated by a computer program trained on the work of countless professional performers, without authorization or compensation,” SAG-AFTRA, the union representing actors, said in a statement last fall. “There’s no life experience or emotion to draw from, and from what we’ve seen, audiences have no interest in watching computer-generated content divorced from human experience. It doesn’t solve any ‘problems’; it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, endangering performers’ livelihoods, and devaluing human artistry.”
While Jett drew inspiration from old rock groups to create “knuckle-dragging, Xeroxed” music, Tilly Norwood literally descended from an AI model that couldn’t exist without training data that tech companies obtained from artists without their consent.
I think Pitchfork jumped the gun. Twenty years later, they finally have a worthy subject.
