A synthetic computer program is not an actor.

Yet news outlets, studios, and talent agencies are now calling Tilly Norwood — a fully artificial intelligence creation — an “AI actor,” a term that erases the value of human performance and misleads the public.

Let’s be clear: acting is a human art form. It requires emotion, memory, life experience, vulnerability, and creativity — none of which a computer program possesses. Tilly Norwood may look like a person, but she is a product of code trained on the unpaid, uncredited performances of real working artists.

That’s not innovation — it’s exploitation.

We, the undersigned, call on:

• News organizations and entertainment outlets to stop referring to AI-generated characters as “actors”
• Talent agencies and studios to disclose when synthetic performers are used and ensure clear differentiation
• Media publications to adopt ethical language guidelines that respect the integrity of human performers
   

As SAG-AFTRA made clear: calling Tilly Norwood an “actor” devalues the craft, steals from real performers, and promotes a false equivalency between a job and a digital gimmick.

Even EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg and dozens of working actors have spoken out. Why? Because if we blur the line between human talent and synthetic replicas, we lose more than jobs — we lose the soul of performance.

Calling AI characters “actors” is like calling a chatbot a therapist, or a deepfake a journalist. It’s not just inaccurate — it’s dangerous.

Acting is art. Acting is human.

Newsrooms and agencies must stop calling AI creations “actors.”