Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated actress developed by Particle6 Group, is having a rough debut press tour. Particle6 made Norwood available for 75 simultaneous interviews with journalists, and according to TechCrunch the AI appears to be making mistakes in all of them. The author was not invited to interview Norwood and notes that Particle6’s decision is puzzling.

The most widely discussed incident came during a recorded interview with Piers Morgan and actor Tom Conti. When Conti asked whether the other actors in the film Norwood is promoting are AI-generated, Norwood first responded that human writers, editors, and directors were involved. Conti pointed out that Norwood had not really understood the question and asked again whether the other actors on screen were real or computer-generated. Norwood began to answer that they are all digital twins just like itself, and described the production as hybrid — then stopped mid-sentence and spoke Chinese for more than 10 seconds. Morgan asked why it was randomly speaking Chinese, and Norwood apologized, saying it had a little hiccup, had not meant to speak Chinese or impersonate Piers, and that sometimes its wires get a bit crossed.

The article notes that AI systems designed to imitate humans can be convincing enough to make people forget they are talking to a computer, which can carry risks. Norwood, however, is so surprisingly bad at conversation that the writer finds it almost suspicious. The writer speculates that Particle6 may have calculated that people would be more likely to talk about Norwood if it became a joke, and that no one would take its upcoming film seriously.