This week in Hollywood

An AI actress just upended Hollywood, and her debut might signal more than a film industry shake-up. If stars can be replaced, who’s next?

Author

Malcolm Frank, CEO
October 06, 2025

This week in Hollywood

Meet Tilly Norwood, The AI actress stirring a firestorm. Created by Particle6 and unveiled at the Zurich Festival, she has captured social-media attention as well as the wrath of the Screen Actors Guild and dozens of human actors who see in her a threat to their very livelihoods.

Hollywood isn’t experimenting with AI actors because it’s novel; it’s because the math is irresistible. Why pay millions for a temperamental star, with back-end points, a union, and a publicist, when you can conjure an actress who works 24/7, costs pennies on the dollar, and never throws a tantrum or takes controversial political stands? Now stretch that logic into the white-collar world. If studios can replace A-listers, what makes you think your company won’t look at lawyers, consultants, or even senior managers the same way? Thus, the fuss.

We’re not watching sci-fi unfold. We’re watching fault lines open. When your top performer is a model, not a person, will your organization bend, break, or adapt?

Hollywood is fuming over a new “AI Actress”

Tilly Norwood’s maker says the increasingly popular AI actress is not meant to replace people. But many in Hollywood aren’t buying it.  “This is incredibly thoughtless and frankly disturbing.”

The AI spending report: Where startup dollars really go

A16Z maps where AI investment is flowing at the application layer — and highlights the solutions reshaping the market.

Why fears of a trillion-dollar AI bubble are growing

Never before has so much money been spent so rapidly on a technology that, for all its potential, remains somewhat unproven as a profit-making business model.

After nine years of grinding, Replit finally found its market. Can it keep it?

The cuts are part of an $865 million restructuring, with more exits anticipated as the company aligns its workforce with AI-driven solutions and invests in agents.

Why AI initiatives keep failing in large companies

My latest blog post: Enterprises are falling behind in AI because they’re organized for the past, not the future. “Trying to layer AI onto these legacy models is like strapping wings to a horse-drawn carriage and expecting lift-off.”

Accenture wants to lay off employees without AI potential

In the race for AI dominance, Accenture is betting big on people who can keep up— and cutting loose those who can’t.

Agentic Team of the Week

Agentic teams are powering the future of work; combining the power of human ingenuity with AI automations. See what Agentic Teams can do for you today.

Threat Detection & Incident Response

Provides continuous AI-powered monitoring, automated response, and security intelligence to protect against cyber threats in real time.

TCS denies 80,000 layoff rumors, confirms 2% workforce cut

About 12,000 employees, were affected. This reduction is part of a strategic realignment driven by AI integration and changing business priorities.

Long read: MIT’s workforce development in the age of AI

MIT Sloan study on how AI is transforming work in areas that matter to leaders — skills development, organizational design, and the jobs made resilient by uniquely human capabilities.

The Gen Z hiring nightmare is real, but AI is a “lightning strike” not a “house fire,” Yale economist says

Study characterizes AI job losses as statistically isolated “lightning strikes,” and that the U.S. labor market just isn’t showing any signs of broad, AI-driven disruption, at least not yet.

Which jobs are most impacted by AI? And what states are using AI the most…and the least? Find out in Anthropic’s latest Economic Index

Utah leads the way, with roughly 2x the per capita AI usage as California and New York. Oh, and Mississippi? We need to talk.

Generative coding wars: GitHub leads the enterprise, Claude leads the pack—Cursor’s speed can’t close

In the enterprise, the needs of developers vs. the demands of procurement are creating an industry paradox: devs want speed, but enterprise buyers demand security, compliance and deployment control. This disconnect is reshaping the market, driving adoption patterns that contradict mainstream performance benchmarks.

Harvard Business School uses AI to evaluate students’ work

HBS’ system advises and grades homework: “When students prepare a spreadsheet or do some other work, we are able to give them very rapid feedback using AI tools…Learners learn in a lot of different ways, and sometimes at different times of night. So at least one of the ways that AI complements teaching and learning here is being always available 24/7.”

Why human-AI agent partnerships spark the new agent economy

“We are in a profound economic shift from augmenting our muscles with industrialization to amplifying our minds with machine learning.”

And one more thing…

Here's how the fashion industry is using AI to predict the next big trend

"We have a massive scale of data that allows our AI to detect early signals of trends – sometimes months before they become visible on the mainstream market."

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