The production studio behind Tilly Norwood, a digital character dubbed Hollywood's first "AI actor," plans to join forces with the History Channel in the Netherlands on an AI-powered time travel series, the companies announced Monday.
The 10-part series, "Streets of the Past," will feature Dutch author and media personality Corjan Mol exploring famed streets and squares across the Netherlands "with the help of AI."
"AI will help Mol step back in time and join the action in a cameo role," the companies said in a news release. "Each immersive historical scene will be created by AI using archival materials — such as paintings, engravings or photos — to ensure accuracy."
The series will be produced by Particle6, a company based in the United Kingdom. Particle6 is best known for developing Tilly Norwood, a synthetic character that has stoked intense controversy in the traditional entertainment industry.
In a statement in September that earned national news coverage, for example, the Screen Actors Guild condemned reports that Hollywood talent agencies were exploring whether to sign Tilly Norwood as a client.
"To be clear, 'Tilly Norwood' is not an actor, it's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation" the guild said.
"It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we've seen, audiences aren't interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience," the guild added.
Dutch comedian and writer Eline Van der Velden, who founded Particle6, pushed back on the criticism at the time. In a statement on Instagram, Van der Velden said she views "AI not as a replacement for people, but as a tool — a new paintbrush."
"AI characters should be judged as part of their own genre, on their own merits, rather than compared directly with human actors," she wrote. "Each form of art has its place, and each can be valued for what it uniquely brings."
Sam Pearson, the head of short form commissioning at Hearst Networks, said Monday that the History Channel would be "transparent" about how AI is used in the time travel series.
"We will continue to explore [AI's] potential with ethical partners such as Particle6, using it thoughtfully, with clear guardrails and principles, while all the time being transparent with our audiences and sharing when they are watching AI-generated content," Pearson said.
