AI actress Tilly Norwood is going viral for abruptly switching to speaking Cantonese in the middle of an interview with Piers Morgan.
In the clip shared by Morgan on social media, Norwood can be seen glitching after being asked about her upcoming feature film Misaligned.
“Are the other actors on the screen with you real actors? Or are they computer-generated images?” asked a fellow guest on Piers Morgan’s show, actor Tom Conti.
“They’re all digital twins, just like me. It’s a hybrid production, which means….” said Norwood before randomly switching to Cantonese.
Morgan picked up on the language switch and asked her, “You seem to be speaking Chinese completely randomly for no reason. Why did you do that?”
Norwood responded, claiming that she didn’t actually glitch out. “It seems I had a little hiccup there … sometimes my wires get a bit crossed,” Norwood said. “That was a bit of a curveball even for me. It’s usually a pretty smooth ride, but sometimes these things happen.”
In a statement to Deadline, Eline van der Velden, the founder and CEO of Particle6 (the company that made Norwood), said the AI actress’ language switch-up wasn’t actually a mistake.
“Tilly can be a bit of a show-off — I’m guessing she just wanted to show her language skills, as most of her interviews to date have been in English. She is autonomous after all,” said Velden.
It’s worth noting that this version of Norwood is a separate, interview version called “Talking Tilly,” and, according to a press release from Particle6, it’s already been booked for speaking engagements at conferences and events.