Tilly Norwood's creator insists the AI actor is creating Hollywood jobs
The robot actor is generating work for Hollywood creatives, not stealing jobs from actors, her inventor tells CBS News.
Comedic actor and producer Eline Van der Velden, better known as the creator of the AI-generated "actor" Tilly Norwood , insists the robot-actor is a job creator, not the job killer critics fear she will be.
Norwood, who was introduced to the world in July 2025, is back in the spotlight as she — or it — is poised to make her big-screen debut in "Misaligned," a feature film from Particle6, Van der Velden's production company.
Rather than destroying jobs, Norwood has allowed her to hire more staff, Van der Velden told CBS News. Since she leaned into AI, her studio has expanded her small team sixfold by hiring actors, creative producers and writers, pushing her employee base to roughly 40 workers, she added.
"It's all a result of AI being available," Van der Velden said.
Van der Velden is keenly aware of the perils of AI and the threat it poses to workers' livelihoods, including her own. As an actor and producer, she was concerned that AI could quickly render some of her creative skills, including acting and video content creation, obsolete if she didn't learn how to leverage it.
"I was in the same boat as everyone else. I saw AI-generated images and videos and was like, wow, this is going to take my business," she said. "I was an actor running a small production company, and I knew I needed to future-proof my company and myself."