Live television interviews can unnerve anyone, even artificial-intelligence personalities. AI actor Tilly Norwood suffered a linguistic malfunction on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Friday, switching from English to Cantonese for no apparent reason.
The glitch happened as actor Tom Conti, another guest in Friday’s episode, asked Norwood, a creation of AI talent studio Xiocoia, whether she has human costars in her upcoming feature film debut, Misaligned.
“It’s an interesting point, Tom,” Norwood responded. “My film Misaligned is a hybrid production, meaning real directors, writers, and editors are still very much involved. It’s not about replacing anyone, but about exploring new ways to tell stories.”
Conti then pressed her to answer his question. “Are the other actors on screen with you real actors or are they computer-generated images? Do you know?” he asked.
Norwood paused before responding, “Ah, right. You’re asking about the other actors in Misaligned. They’re all digital twins, just like me. It’s a hybrid production, which means—”
And that’s when Norwood started speaking Cantonese.
Host Piers Morgan asked Norwood why she switched languages, and the AI actor apologized. “It seems I had a little hiccup there,” she added. “I certainly didn’t mean to start speaking Chinese or impersonate Piers. Sometimes my wires get a bit crossed, you know? … That was a bit of a curveball, even for me. It’s usually a pretty smooth ride, but sometimes these things happen.”
Norwood attracted controversy a year ago after talent agencies expressed interest in signing the AI personality, per The Independent.
“Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their [ass],” Your Monster star Melissa Barrera wrote on Instagram. “How gross, read the room.”
In an Instagram comment, Matlida actor Mara Wilson wrote, “And what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her? You couldn’t hire any of them?”
And Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story star Nicholas Alexander Chavez wrote, “Not an actress actually nice try.”