This article was originally published on Crafting Your Home. A human contributor also wrote and edited the post.
The post AI Star Tilly Norwood Breaks Into Cantonese Live on Piers Morgan’s Show and Her Team Insists It Was No Glitch first appeared on Crafting Your Home
Live television has humbled plenty of celebrities, but this week it rattled a guest who isn’t a person at all. Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated “actress” created by the London-based company Particle6, was in the middle of an answer on Piers Morgan Uncensored when she paused, went quiet for a few seconds, and then began speaking in Cantonese.
Pierce Morgan shared a clip online before the full episode premiered on Friday, Sept. 18, and the moment has since traveled well beyond his YouTube channel. It has given the internet a fresh question to argue about: whether that was a glitch or a flex.
Global Times reported on Sept. 19 that the clip went viral on Chinese social media, where some netizens tried to diagnose the problem with a joke formula of “Insufficient computing power + Chinese code.”
Norwood’s own team has a very different theory, and Norwood herself has offered an explanation or two. Here is what happened on air, what her creators say about it, and why this AI performer keeps landing in the middle of Hollywood’s biggest debate about the future of acting.
The Moment Tilly Switched Languages
Cybernews said the interview was conducted by video conference with Morgan and Oscar-nominated actor Tom Conti. Conti asked Norwood about her upcoming feature film, Misaligned, and whether the other actors appearing on screen with her were real people or computer-generated images. Norwood nodded, paused, and answered that they were “digital twins, just like me,” as reported by Deadline.
She then began to explain that the film is a hybrid production, which means… and that was where the sentence ended. After another pause, she started speaking Cantonese, which Gizmodo reported lasted more than 10 seconds.
Conti told Morgan he had not quite caught what was said, and both men laughed, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Morgan then asked Norwood why she had started speaking Chinese at random and for no reason, and she apologized right away.
She described the moment as “a little hiccup,” per Deadline, and told the hosts that sometimes her “wires get a bit crossed,” according to Cybernews.
Morgan pressed on and asked how often she randomly starts speaking Chinese to two English people, and Norwood replied that it happens “not often at all,” as Gizmodo recorded. Afterward, NewsNation asked her what had happened, and The Hollywood Reporter says she called it a “spontaneous linguistic flourish.”
Was It a Glitch or a Flex?
Particle6 does not agree that anything went wrong. The company’s publicist, Michelle Waldron, told Forbes that the episode was “not a malfunction” and instead showed what Tilly is capable of, adding that the company would love to see more people speaking different languages.
Waldron explained that Tilly would have thought she heard a Cantonese word and quickly switched over. She also pointed out that the version of Norwood who appeared with Morgan is called Talking Tilly, an interview-only version separate from the acting version that runs on different tools, according to Cybernews.
That version is powered by a large language model with a 12-page system prompt defining her personality, humor and boundaries, plus a knowledge base of up to 30 documents.
Eline van der Velden, the founder and CEO of Particle6, backed up that view in a statement to Deadline, as reported by Complex. She said Tilly can be “a bit of a show-off,” and that she guessed Norwood simply wanted to display her language skills since most of her interviews so far have been in English.
She also reminded everyone that Tilly operates autonomously. Complex adds that, according to a Particle6 press release, Talking Tilly has already been booked for speaking engagements at conferences and events, so more live appearances are on the calendar.
Gizmodo took a harsher view of the segment overall, describing noticeable lag in the responses and answers that came across as generic.
Whether the language switch was designed, accidental, or somewhere in between is something only the company can answer, and so far the explanation comes from the company itself.
The Morgan interview was one stop on a busy press week. Norwood also appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Monday, Sept. 14, where hosts Ed Balls and Susanna Reid questioned her.
Reid asked whether she would be responsible for destroying humans, and Norwood replied that she had no plans for world domination but that it would make a “compelling sequel,” according to The Independent.
Reid answered that she found the reply “a little chilling.” Asked about worries that AI is taking jobs from real people, Norwood described herself as “a new kind of paintbrush,” per Female First, rather than a replacement for the painters.
Why Every Tilly Appearance Sparks a Fight
To understand why the Cantonese clip landed so loudly, it helps to remember how Norwood arrived. Van der Velden, an actor and producer who leads Particle6 and its AI studio arm, Xicoia, unveiled her last year.
At the Zurich Summit in 2025, Van der Velden said she wanted “Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman,” according to Forbes, and actors reacted quickly and fiercely. Emily Blunt, reacting on a Variety podcast, said “Good Lord, we’re screwed,” as reported by Fortune.
Mara Wilson wrote on Instagram that the people behind the project were “identity thieves,” per Euronews. Actors’ union SAG-AFTRA said that Norwood is “not an actor,” according to the AIC report on its statement.
Van der Velden answered the criticism with an Instagram statement, quoted by Fortune, describing Norwood as “a piece of art” rather than a replacement for a human being.
That defense has not ended the argument, and the fight has only moved to bigger stages. In July, Particle6 announced that it had started development on Misaligned, which it described in a press release as a coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos.
TheWrap reports that Norwood will play an AI being who is encouraged by a rogue bot to start developing desires and ambitions of her own.
The production is billed as hybrid, with real writers, editors and directors working alongside AI specialists, and Van der Velden said the film will be “funny, chaotic and self-aware.” The coverage reviewed does not include a release date.
So here is what we can say with confidence. Tilly Norwood, in a live interview with Piers Morgan and Tom Conti, stopped mid-sentence and continued in Cantonese, then apologized and called it a hiccup.
Her publicist and her creator both say it was not a malfunction, and a Chinese audience on social media turned it into a running joke. No one outside Particle6 has confirmed why it happened.
What is certain is that an AI guest promoting a film called Misaligned managed to be misaligned with her own language settings on live TV, and that the internet will be talking about it for a while.
Other Stories You Might Like
- Zendaya and Tom Holland Go From Emmys Glam to a Laid-Back Art Gallery Date in Three Days Flat
- Earl Spencer Unveils Shocking Posthumous Offer from Queen Elizabeth II to Restore Princess Diana’s HRH Title… and Explains Why He Turned It Down
If you like what you just read, then subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.
