Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Hollywood's biggest union just condemned Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated actress created by European company Particle6 Productions, as multiple talent agencies line up to represent her. SAG-AFTRA insists she's not a performer but a computer program trained on actors' work without permission, escalating tensions over AI's role in entertainment.
Will audiences accept synthetic actors or demand the human performances that make film and television meaningful?
In today's recap:
SAG-AFTRA battles talent agencies pursuing AI-generated actress
A16z exposes where AI startups spend their actual money
AI agents achieve near-human computer task performance levels
8 new AI tools and more
HOLLYWOOD & AI
Hollywood rages over 'AI actor' Tilly Norwood
Source: Particle6
Recaply: Hollywood's biggest union is pushing back hard against Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated actress that talent agents want to sign. SAG-AFTRA says she's not a real performer but a computer program trained on stolen work. The controversy highlights growing tensions over AI replacing human actors in film and television.
Key details:
Tilly Norwood was created by Particle6 Productions, a European AI company led by Dutch founder Eline Van der Velden.
SAG-AFTRA issued a sharp statement calling Norwood a computer program trained on performers' work without permission or compensation.
Hollywood stars including Emily Blunt, Whoopi Goldberg, and Melissa Barrera spoke out against the AI creation.
Van der Velden announced at the Zurich Film Festival that multiple talent agencies were interested in signing Norwood.
The union's 2023 contract requires studios to notify and bargain before using synthetic performers.
Why it matters: This controversy shows how AI is testing Hollywood's boundaries. While creators call it art and innovation, performers see their livelihoods at risk. The outcome could shape whether audiences accept computer-generated actors or demand the human touch that makes entertainment meaningful.
A16Z
Which AI apps startups are actually paying for?
Source: A16z
Recaply: A16z just revealed what AI startups are actually paying for, and the results might surprise folks. Partnering with Mercury, the firm analyzed spending from over 200,000 customers between June and August 2025 to create a Top 50 list of AI companies based on real money, not just web traffic.
Key details:
OpenAI takes the top spot, followed by Anthropic and coding platform Replit in third place.
Creative tools dominate with 10 companies making the list, led by Freepik and ElevenLabs.
Most companies started as consumer products before expanding to enterprise customers.
Meeting support tools like Fyxer and note-taking apps are popular spending categories.
60 percent of spending goes to horizontal tools anyone can use, while 40 percent targets specific roles.
Why it matters: This spending data reveals a practical truth about AI adoption. Startups are voting with their wallets for tools that boost productivity across entire teams, not just specialized departments. The shift from consumer to enterprise products is happening faster than ever, showing how urgently companies want AI capabilities.
SIMULAR AI
AI agent nearly matches human skills
Source: Simular AI
Recaply: Simular AI just released Agent S3, their newest computer control system that gets things done almost as well as people do. The company took their previous Agent S2 framework and made it simpler by cutting out extra layers that slowed things down. Now Agent S3 can write its own code and interact with screens more naturally.
Key details:
Agent S3 scores 62.6% on the OSWorld test when running once, beating the previous top score of 61.4% from Claude Sonnet 4.5.
Using a new feature called Behavior Best-of-N, it runs several attempts and picks the best one, pushing scores to 69.9%.
Human users score about 72% on the same tests, meaning AI agents are closing the gap fast.
The framework improvement alone added 13% better performance by removing complicated manager-worker structures.
Agent S3 works across Windows and Android systems with strong results on both platforms.
Why it matters: Agent S3 is bringing AI from test labs into everyday use. AI can now do routine tasks almost as well as humans, letting companies automate simple jobs like form-filling and scheduling. This is especially helpful for healthcare and insurance companies that deal with lots of paperwork. As these AI tools get better, they'll likely handle more of our computer tasks in the future.
NEWS
Beyond the big stories in AI today
IBM launched Granite 4.0, introducing hybrid models that cut RAM requirements by 70% using Mamba-2 architecture for cost-effective enterprise AI deployment.
Perplexity made Comet browser free worldwide, expanding access from its previous $200/month tier to millions of waitlisted users seeking AI-powered browsing.
Google released Jules Tools, a command-line interface for its async coding agent, directly challenging GitHub Copilot with terminal-native AI development workflows.
Lindy AI announced Gaia, an AI voice agent for business phone calls supporting 30+ languages and real-time integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot.
Google made Nano Banana generally available, enabling production-ready AI applications with enhanced image processing and aspect ratio support.
Meta launched Business AI, a customer service agent free on Facebook and Instagram, with paid tiers for third-party website integration starting later this year.
Microsoft researchers revealed AI can bypass biosecurity systems, demonstrating how protein design tools could evade DNA screening before developing protective patches.
Notion introduced enhanced database mapping, integrating third-party services to transform workspace data into interactive maps for location-based project management.
TOOLS
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🎬 Arcads - Create video ads from text using AI actors
