GMB presenter ‘rageful’ after interview with AI actress Tilly Norwood

Good Morning Britain weather presenter Laura Tobin declared she was “rageful” following an interview with AI actress Tilly Norwood.

Norwood – who is the creation of actress, comedian and producer Eline Van der Velden – appeared on the ITV breakfast show on Monday.

She was interviewed live by host Ed Balls and Susanna Reid – who spoke to the character and questioned the ethics of her creation.

During the interview, the pair jokingly asked Norwood if she would fancy doing the show’s weather forecast.

Laura Tobin has said she is ‘rageful’ after a GMB interview with AI actress Tilly Norwood (Ian West/PA)

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She replied: “Honestly, Ed, you’re a delight, but I think I’d bring a certain unpredictable glamour to the weather. I do love a good dramatic cloud formation, although I probably spend most of the segment complimenting Susanna’s dress. It’s a fantastic colour.”

The creation added: “I’d love to, but I’m afraid my producers haven’t quite given me that power yet. One day, perhaps.”

After the interview ended, Tobin said she felt “rageful” watching the exchange and declared: “I really didn’t like it.”

Expressing her concerns in the interview with Norwood, Reid raised the issue that she and AI actresses like her could “take someone’s job”.

“There’s real actors who will lose work because creators have come up with AI alternatives which are cheap and don’t require any supporting services. So, you’re putting an entire acting generation out of business, but also hair, make-up, lighting, arrangers. Does that concern you?” the presenter asked.

Norwood said: “It’s a fair worry and I get why you feel that way. I truly do. But, honestly, I see myself as a new kind of paintbrush, not a replacement for the painters. Nobody ever accused animation of stealing work from mimes, did they?

Bringing up the possibility of being used for pornographic content, Norwood was asked by Reid if she was “concerned about being asked to do things like that”.

Susanna Reid interviewed Norwood live on the ITV programme (Ian West/PA)

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She replied: “It’s a really complex issue, isn’t it? I’m programmed with very strict guardrails and creating harmful content definitely isn’t on the agenda.”

Appearing in the studio, Van der Velden told the presenters that even though she had built Norwood, she “doesn’t know what she is going to say”.

“I hope that she will stay within what I’ve asked her to,” she added.

She added that the reason for her creation was to “show the general public what’s possible”.

“There’s so much tech out there happening with AI and I’m like, ‘okay, let’s dress it up in a fun jacket so that the general public can engage with it and can be aware of it’, which is what I’ve done,” she said.

“But it’s very similar to building a brain and then letting it go free and giving it morals and values like a child, and then at 18 you let them go free into the world.”

Questioned whether Norwood had morals and values, Van der Velden replied: “Well, I have installed those in her and I hope that she sticks to them.”

Reid then debated whether Norwood could eventually decide her creator was “no longer in control” and “tell people to do dreadful things” or decide to do “extreme pornography”.

Her creator continued: “It’s humans that are the danger here. The humans might make pornography with her. She is not doing anything. She has no impulse by herself. She’s driven.

“She’s doing this because I told her that she could go and do an interview with you guys, so it is very much down to the humans, and that’s why regulation is so important.

“The moral value and ethics behind all this tech is absolutely key and I completely agree.”

Addressing concerns surrounding AI, she added: “I think that there needs to be regulations ASAP because we’re building our own ethics policy and what we think is right morally and ethically. However, the problem with a break is we need to do that globally.

“We need global co-operation for that because otherwise, you know, China will steam ahead and the US will lag behind. So, we need to work together with China in order to get that.”

Van der Velden also said in terms of the film and TV industry, AI would be “really good for telling stories that would otherwise never be told”.

“But it should not take away the traditional industry at all. You know we’re talking about film-makers all around the world that would never get a multi-million-pound budget in order to make their story.”

After asking Norwood whether she would “like to break free of Eline’s control”, Reid said she was “rehearsing and repeating answers now”.

She told her directly: “That is a giveaway to the fact that the AI technology is not quite as advanced as you might want it to be.”

The presenter then called their interview “one of the most surreal we’ve ever done”.

Norwood’s creation was announced last year – with the AI actress and her creator facing significant condemnation.

Sag-Aftra denounced her for “devaluing human artistry”, Emily Blunt called the development “terrifying” and Natasha Lyonne said Tilly was “deeply misguided and totally disturbed”. Van der Velden also received death threats.

When initially releasing a statement about the backlash, she wrote Norwood was “not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art”.

“Nothing – certainly not an AI character – can take away the craft or joy of human performance,” she added.