‘How Bizarre Is This?’ NBC News Airs Interview with AI-Generated Actress

 

NBC News aired an interview Monday that entertainment correspondent Chloe Melas conducted with an AI actress named Tilly Norwood.

The interview premiered on Monday morning’s edition of 3rd Hour of Today. While introducing the interview, co-host Al Roker remarked, “How bizarre is this?” Melas then added it was “quite an assignment” before the segment began.

Melas effectively did the interview like she would with any other virtual interview, with her speaking to Norwood via video call. The virtual avatar was shown in a room surrounded by several lightbulbs and a plastic flamingo. Melas added that it “kind of felt like talking to ChatGPT.”

The conversation continued:

MELAS: So why have you decided to do interviews?

NORWOOD: Well, Chloe, it’s not every day you get to be a new kind of paintbrush, is it? I think it’s important to talk about what I am, how I work, and hopefully make people a bit lighter than when they arrived.

The AI-generated actress, Melas noted, made her debut in September 2025. When asked how she felt about the initial reaction to her existence, Norwood claimed it “stung a bit” to see the immediate pushback. Melas later asked Norwood which actress she believed she was most similar to.

“Well, Chloe, that’s a tough one because I’m not really trying to be like any human actor,” Norwood said. “Though, honestly, if you’re going to mistake me for someone, there are worse options than, say, Scarlett Johansson.”

Melas also asked Norwood about the recent warnings issued by experts in the AI field. An ex-Anthropic employment recently announced their resignation of the company allegedly acting irresponsibly, and claimed everyone in the AI field was aware that the technology could realistically wipe out the human within the next decade.

“That’s a very serious concern, Chloe,” Norwood said. “My purpose is to be a creative tool, not a threat.”

As the segment closed, Melas looked back on her conversation with Norwood and remarked that “it was pretty clear that talking to Tilly that I was not speaking to a human being.”

“Her voice was robotic, she was glitchy, she also repeated herself in answers,” Melas added, “and I actually called and hung up with her a few times, and she would actually forget that we had spoken. But I mean, overall, she commented on my appearance, she saw what I was wearing, she understood my surroundings behind me, but I don’t think that she’s coming for our jobs quite yet.”

Watch above via NBC News.

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