Tilly Norwood, the world’s first fully AI-powered ‘actor’, will be part of the NDTV World Summit 2026, which will take place on October 22 and 23 in New Delhi.
Tilly Norwood is an AI-generated character created by British producer and actor Elin van der Velden. Aline introduced Tilly at the 2025 Zurich Film Festival convention. She is the founder of AI production company Particle6. The company describes Norwood as an ‘AI actor’ and a new form of digital performer.
Tilly’s arrival drew strong criticism from the actors’ and artists’ unions. SAG-AFTRA said Norwood is not an actor but a computer-generated character and warned against replacing human actors with synthetic ones. The union also raised concerns about protesters’ work being used without proper consent or compensation.
A year after the introduction, Eileen returned to the same event and addressed the backlash, as reported by Variety, saying, “It’s a weird problem, kind of negativity and then positivity at the same time. At Particle6, we’ve grown eightfold. We have four departments; we’re doing a lot of work in AI, TV and film, we’re doing a lot of work in TV commercials and film. And the actual commissions we’re doing.” Many do AI consulting, bringing AI workflows to other studios and production companies.”
Elin added, “I made her as a physicist actress; I felt I needed to bridge the gap in communication between tech and the entertainment industry.”
“As opposed to writing a boring white paper about what was happening with AI, I thought: Let’s create something to show people that engages them and forces them to sit up and take action so that the creative industry can stay ahead, as opposed to being completely and utterly taken over by the tech industry,” he added.
Talking about Tilly, the ‘AI actor’ said in an interview with CNN, “I am not an enemy of humans.”
During the interview, Tilly also spoke with a British accent and described herself as intelligent, friendly, and a fan of dry British humor. In the same interview, responding to criticism from actors including Emily Blunt, Norwood said she felt “very hurt”.
About NDTV World Summit 2026
NDTV World Summit 2026: A World Between Orders brings together global leaders, policymakers, economists, business leaders, thinkers, innovators and cultural voices to examine a world caught between an established order and an emerging world.
From geopolitics and the global economy to artificial intelligence, technology, security and India’s growing role on the global stage, the summit explores the forces shaping our collective future.
For India, this moment presents both responsibility and opportunity. As a rising economic and geopolitical power, the country is increasingly central to conversations shaping the world’s next chapter.
NDTV World Summit 2026 is a platform to question the present, understand change, and explore the possibilities of what lies ahead in a world between orders.
NDTV World Summit 2026 brings together global leaders, policymakers, economists, thinkers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and cultural voices to reflect on the defining questions of this transformative era. The Summit not only seeks to examine the forces reshaping the world, but also to understand the profound implications of living through a historical moment in which certainty itself has become fragile. It is an invitation to engage with the complexities of a world that is being reordered politically, economically, technologically and intellectually.
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