Displaced mothers are forced into gruelling manual labour to feed families as new data confirm Sudan has surpassed COVID-19 records for school closures.
In the displacement camps of Ad-Damazin in southeastern Sudan’s Blue Nile State, the war is reshaping social norms and introducing new realities that are forcing Sudanese women into manual labour to survive.
Rasha is a displaced mother. She has ignored old boundaries and perceptions of what a man’s work is and started working as a woodcutter to feed her children.
“Carpentry is hard, … but the axe has become an extension of my hand,” Rasha told Al Jazeera Arabic. “There are no choices left.”
Her story is not unique. Thousands of Sudanese women have become their families’ sole breadwinners and work under harsh conditions. Rasha’s earnings after a day of back-breaking labour under the sun are often enough to buy only a packet of biscuits.
She spends the money on food and soap. “You want soap. You want to wash,” she said. “As for clothes, we have given up hope on that.”
The nearly three-year war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group has had a catastrophic impact on the country and its people.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 30 million people from a population of 46.8 million are in need of humanitarian assistance.
The population is facing acute food shortages and a nutrition crisis, especially in the Darfur and Kordofan regions in western and central Sudan. At the same time, disease outbreaks are worsening the situation.
Moreover, Sudan is dealing with the world’s largest displacement crisis with an estimated 13.6 million people forced from their homes by the fighting.
Worse than the pandemic
The war has also destroyed many aspects of life in Sudan, and it is now threatening the future of generations to come.
Save the Children released a damning report on Thursday confirming that Sudan is enduring one of the longest school closures in the world, surpassing even the worst shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the new analysis released before the International Day of Education on Saturday:
More than eight million, or nearly half of Sudan’s school-age children, have missed about 484 days of learning since the war began in April 2023.
This duration is 10 percent longer than the school closures during the pandemic in the Philippines, which was the last country to resume face-to-face learning.
Unlike during the pandemic, remote learning is impossible for most Sudanese children, leaving them vulnerable to recruitment into armed groups and sexual exploitation.
‘Total breakdown’ in conflict zones
The data reveal a system on the brink of collapse, particularly in conflict hotspots.
In North Darfur State, only 3 percent of its more than 1,100 schools remain open. The situation is similarly dire in the states of South Darfur (13 percent operational) and West Kordofan (15 percent).
“Education is not a luxury. … It is a lifeline,” Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children, said after a visit to Sudan. “If we fail to invest in education today, we risk condemning an entire generation to a future defined by conflict rather than by opportunity.”
Adding to the crisis, many teachers have gone unpaid for months, forcing them to abandon their posts, while countless schools have been bombed or turned into shelters.
Siege and famine conditions
The collapse of education is mirrored by the collapse of food supplies. As aid funding dries up – a reality confirmed by Blue Nile Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Qisma Abdel Karim – famine is setting in.
OCHA reported this week that:
At least 2,000 families are cut off from aid in North Darfur due to intense fighting.
“Famine conditions” have been confirmed in the besieged city of Kadugli in South Kordofan.
Significant gaps remain in the provision of aid as the UN has appealed for $2.9bn to fund its humanitarian response in Sudan this year.
‘Equal in misery’
Those statistics translate into hard reality on the ground.
“The war does not distinguish between a child, a woman or an elderly man,” Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Taher Almardi said, reporting from Ad-Damazin. “Everyone is equal in misery.”
For Rasha and mothers like her, the choice is stark: break traditional norms and toil for a pittance or succumb to hunger.
Bragi Jonsson is Icelandic but hates the winter’s freezing cold there. In fact, he hates it so much that since 2020, he has been heading south during the winter
(Image: Supplied)
A retired security guard who swapped his life in Europe for a sun-soaked Southern Hemisphere country has shared how much his life there really costs.
Bragi Jonsson is Icelandic but hates the winter’s freezing cold there. In fact, he hates it so much that since 2020, he has been heading south during the winter, staying in Thailand for months at a time. The 69-year-old rents somewhere cheap and spends his time relaxing, enjoying the warm weather and local culture.
The Mirror caught up with Bragi during his most recent trip to Pattaya, a vibrant coastal city on the Gulf of Thailand that is known for its energetic beaches, diverse nightlife and the Big Buddha.
“It is pretty nice. This is my fifth time I’ve come down here,” Bragi explained while sunning himself in the 30 °C January weather. Bragi is one of an increasing number of Europeans who call Thailand their home, at last for part of the year.
By one estimate, there are around five million foreigners living in the country, around 300,000 of which are North American, European or Australian. One reason is the more generous visa rules that were introduced in 2024, with visa-free access extended to 60 days for tourism, up from 30. The process is further streamlined by the adoption of Thai e-Visa and a new Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) system, though authorities are enforcing stricter checks on long-term “visa runs”.
Another big reason – beyond the pleasant weather – is the cost of living.
“It is much cheaper to live down here than in the UK or Iceland. I’ve got a lovely place down here and it’s cheaper to go out dining than cooking at home,” Bragi explained.
“Food, for example, £4 for a course would be expensive. I like pad thai. A good steak with beer is £5. Altogether, it’s cheap living down here. If you really go local at the food stands, you can live cheap.”
In terms of beer, a large bottle of Chang or Singha beer can be bought in the shops for 70 baht, or around £1.60, with the price rising to roughly double that in bars.
“There is a big nightclub further down the beach (in Pattaya), and it’s more expensive the closer you go to there. There’s a bar with ladies who look after you. Every bar lady tries to chat you up. It’s a nice gesture, but you have to tip them,” Bragi added.
At the moment, Bragi is paying £240 a month for his accommodation, a studio apartment which includes water, electricity, and internet. studio apartment.
Bragi, who retired in 2021 after years spent working as a security guard in Iceland and in hotels, continued: “I never wanted to own anything. The most expensive thing I’ve owned is a car. I never wanted to own a property. I work and travel. I have a permanent address in Iceland and pre-settlement status in the UK, but I am hoping to move to Thailand longer term.”
When asked if he missed anything about his home country, Bragi said “nothing”. “I wouldn’t survive up there. The rent is so expensive. And it is damn cold over there. My plan is at least seven/eight months in Thailand, maybe move around to Bali or Vietnam. I am definitely not going to Iceland. I don’t worry about anything. I am just living life.”
As Bragi doesn’t own a home in Iceland. When he’s not in Thailand, he travels the world, house sitting for families in the UK and elsewhere in Europe via HouseSitMatch.
He has now stayed in over 70 properties and doesn’t see himself stopping anytime soon. He saves on rent and household bills, and can enjoy exploring new places during his retirement. But his biggest tip for exploring unknown areas is fascinating – he takes part in Geo Caching – essentially a treasure hunt via GPS on your phone. “It has taken me to so many places that I would never have known about, you can do it anywhere in the world and it keeps you fit and healthy – I see lots of families doing it too.”
According to Thomas Cook data, it’s mainly couples that are heading to Thailand on holiday – accounting for 51% of all bookings. What’s more interesting is holidaymakers are leaning into luxury, with 93% of bookings to Thailand made this month opting for four- and five-star accommodation. Nicholas Smith, holidays digital director at Thomas Cook, said: “We’ve seen bookings to Thailand increase by more than 400% year-on-year, as holidaymakers look to stretch their budgets further while still ticking off long-haul, bucket list destinations. Strong value on accommodation and experiences, paired with Thailand’s reputation as a safe and flexible choice for first-time long-haul customers, are all playing a part.”
The NFL play-offs have got off to a thrilling start with the Los Angeles Rams needing a late touchdown to escape a huge upset at the Carolina Panthers.
The Rams were not only heavy favourites to win on Wildcard Weekend but are among the Super Bowl favourites.
But they needed a touchdown by tight end Colby Parkinson with 38 seconds remaining to claim a 34-31 win in Charlotte.
Despite coming into the post-season with a losing 8-9 record, Carolina had home advantage having stumbled to the NFC South division title.
The Rams, who finished the regular season 12-5, looked on course for a straightforward passage to the Divisional Round after Puka Nacua scored the opening two touchdowns.
But the Panthers regrouped and rushing touchdowns by Chuba Hubbard and quarterback Bryce Young cut the score to 17-14 at half-time, before the hosts tied the game in the third quarter.
Hubbard and Jalen Coker twice put the Panthers in front during the final quarter, but the Rams replied each time with Kyren Williams then Parkinson scoring from passes by quarterback Matt Stafford, who is favourite for this season’s Most Valuable Player award.
Declan Rice shrugged off a knee injury to extend Arsenal’s advantage at the top of the Premier League to six points with a come-from-behind 3-2 win at Bournemouth.
A rare Gabriel Magalhaes error gifted the Cherries an early opener through Evanilson on Saturday, but the Brazilian quickly redeemed himself to level.
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Rice had been a doubt after missing Tuesday’s 4-1 demolition of Aston Villa due to knee swelling.
The England international returned to the starting lineup and doubled his tally for the season with two composed finishes either side of the hour mark.
Eli Kroupi’s fine strike gave Bournemouth hope, but Arsenal comfortably saw out the closing stage to move seven points clear of Manchester City, who host managerless Chelsea in their game in hand on Sunday.
There had been a glimmer of hope for Pep Guardiola’s men when Arsenal conceded after just 10 minutes.
Gabriel mishit his attempted cross-field pass towards Jurrien Timber and presented the ball to his compatriot Evanilson, who slotted past David Raya for his first home goal of the season.
Arsenal’s towering centre-back netted on his first start for nearly two months against Villa in midweek and showed his eye for goal once more to equalise within six minutes
Gabriel pounced to slam home Noni Madueke’s deflected cross for his 20th Premier League goal since he joined the Gunners in 2020 — seven more than any other defender.
Rice has also turned into a useful source of important goals since being pushed into a more advanced role this season.
He was perfectly picked out by Martin Odegaard to slot in from the edge of the box to put the visitors in front on 56 minutes.
Bukayo Saka came off the bench to create Arsenal’s third as Rice swept home his cut-back.
Bournemouth remain without a win, stretching back 11 games to October 26.
However, only five sides have scored more Premier League goals this season than Andoni Iraola’s men.
A stunning strike by Kropi from long range set up a nervy finale.
But Mikel Arteta’s men held firm to take another big step towards ending their 22-year wait to lift the Premier League title.
Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa scores his team’s second goal during the Premier League match against Nottingham Forest [Mark Thompson/Getty Images]
Villa beat Forest, while West Ham ’embarrassed’ at Wolves
Aston Villa beat struggling Nottingham Forest 3-1 at their home fortress to ease the pain of their midweek mauling by Arsenal, leapfrogging Manchester City into second place in the Premier League.
Ollie Watkins’s strike on the cusp of half-time gave Unai Emery’s side a deserved lead, and John McGinn scored twice in the second half, either side of a Morgan Gibbs-White goal for the visitors.
Villa’s 11-game winning streak in all competitions was brought to a shuddering halt with a 4-1 defeat at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, raising doubts about their ability to maintain a title charge.
But their impressive record at Villa Park remains intact – they have now won 11 straight matches there since a 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in August.
Villa boss Emery told Sky Sports that his players and coaching staff had held a meeting after their chastening loss to Arsenal.
“I am so happy,” he said. “We had to recover our energy and our confidence. Here, at Villa Park, the energy we create was really important.
“Forest are competitive. After the Arsenal match, we met the players and staff: how we are doing this season, how we are feeling, how we needed to keep the same consistency as before, how we needed to be together and strong.”
Villa started brightly on a bitingly cold day in Birmingham, but struggled to make their dominance count in a tepid first half.
But the in-form Watkins broke the deadlock in the closing moments of a half in which they enjoyed nearly 80 percent possession.
The England international received the ball outside the area from Morgan Rogers and slammed home for his fourth goal in three games.
McGinn doubled Villa’s lead in the 49th minute, side-footing home from a Matty Cash cross.
Villa appeared to be cruising, but Forest were back in the game in the 61st minute courtesy of a fine finish from Gibbs-White, who chipped past the diving Emi Martinez.
The home side were gifted a third goal in the 73rd minute when Forest goalkeeper John Victor inexplicably vacated his goalmouth to try to reach a long ball from Youri Tielemans, even though there were defenders nearby.
Scotland midfielder McGinn collected the ball and remained cool, sidestepping Victor and stroking the ball into the empty net with his left foot from well outside the area.
The win took Villa to 42 points, one ahead of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, who host managerless Chelsea on Sunday.
Forest, who have now suffered four straight league defeats, remain one place above the relegation zone, four points clear of West Ham, who were thumped 3-0 at bottom-of-the-table Wolves.
“The first half was embarrassing, and I have to apologise to the fans – this is not what we want to show,” beleaguered Hammers’ manager Nuno Espirito Santo said after.
Elsewhere, second-bottom Burnley lost 2-0 at Brighton and Hove Albion.
The stand-up comic turned actor has spent the past decade as one of Hollywood’s most bankable and visible stars, headlining megahits like the “Jumanji” films alongside a steady output of comedies and animated features, while still selling out arena tours and releasing hit Netflix comedy specials. Off-screen, his face turns up everywhere: pitching banking apps, tequila and energy drinks.
In the era of artificial intelligence, though, that guarantee has begun to erode. A quick Google search for “Kevin Hart AI” turns up unofficial versions of his voice, available with a few clicks.
A series on how the AI revolution is reshaping the creative foundations of Hollywood — from storytelling and performance to production, labor and power.
That helps explain why, one evening last month on the Fox lot, the head of Hart’s entertainment company, Hartbeat, was on an industry panel talking not about box office or release strategies but AI. Jeff Clanagan painted a picture of a landscape in which movie stardom is no longer protected by traditional channels, as attention splinters across platforms and audiences fragment. In that environment, AI can be both a risk and a lever.
“The most valuable resource right now is attention,” Clanagan told the audience of 150 studio executives, filmmakers, investors and technologists gathered at Hollywood X, an invitation-only event focused on responsible adoption of AI. “You’re competing for it everywhere — everybody is always on a second screen. That fragmentation is where the disruption is.”
Hollywood was built on the idea that a small number of stars could reliably command attention and turn it into leverage. As AI and algorithm-driven platforms reshape how attention is created and distributed, even the most recognizable names are newly exposed — not only to dilution but to the prospect of being replaced altogether.
Jeff Clanagan, right, president and chief distribution officer of Kevin Hart’s entertainment company, Hartbeat, speaking on a panel at last month’s Hollywood X event.
(Randall Michelson)
In parts of Asia, synthetic performers are no longer hypothetical. In Japan, the anime-style virtual pop star Hatsune Miku has sold out concerts and headlined festivals. In China, AI hosts run shopping streams on the video platform Douyin. And in the U.S., Lil Miquela, a computer-generated influencer created by the Los Angeles startup Brud, has amassed millions of followers and appeared in major fashion campaigns, including a Calvin Klein ad with Bella Hadid.
For studios, brands and producers, the appeal isn’t hard to see. A virtual performer doesn’t call in sick, miss a shoot or carry off-screen baggage. There’s no aging out of roles, no scheduling crunch. They don’t need trailers, negotiate contracts or arrive with riders, entourages and expense accounts in tow.
The old mythology was that a star might be discovered at Schwab’s lunch counter or in an audition room. Hollywood has always chased the “it factor.” What happens when the performer is, quite literally, an it?
That question came into sharp focus this fall with the appearance of Tilly Norwood, a photorealistic, AI-generated character that took the guise of a rising British actor, styled to read mid-20s and approachable — exactly the kind of star Hollywood is always looking for.
It landed in an industry already on edge. Hollywood was still reeling from strikes, layoffs and a prolonged contraction, with anxiety about AI simmering just below the surface. The response was immediate and visceral.
SAG-AFTRA warned that projects like Tilly risked relying on what the union called “stolen performances,” arguing that AI-generated actors draw on the work of real performers without consent or compensation, concerns that were central to the union’s 2023 strike. On a Variety podcast, Emily Blunt was shown an image of Tilly and paused. “No — are you serious? That’s an AI?” she said. “Good Lord, we’re screwed.”
SAG-AFTRA members march in one “Unity Picket” on strike day 111 at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank on Nov. 1, 2023.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Even some of Hollywood’s most tech-forward figures have drawn a line. On the press tour for his latest film, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” James Cameron — the director who once warned of Skynet in “The Terminator” — called the idea of AI replacing actors “horrifying,” arguing that human performance would become increasingly “sacred.”
Yves Bergquist, an AI researcher who directs the AI in Media Project at the USC Entertainment Technology Center — a think tank supported by major studios and technology companies — expects AI to continue to encroach on territory once reserved solely for humans.
“Will we see AI movie stars?” Bergquist asks. “Probably.” But he draws a line between what the technology can generate and what audiences are willing to invest in emotionally.
“Prince writing his songs is a great story,” he says. “Pushing a button and making music is not. Very soon — it’s already starting — we’re going to have this us-versus-them mentality. These are the machines and we’re the humans. And we’re not the same.”
The actor that didn’t exist
“Are you allowed to speak to me from L.A.?” Eline van der Velden, the creator of Tilly Norwood, asks with a quick, nervous laugh on a video call from London — a nod to how radioactive the subject of synthetic performers has become.
The question isn’t entirely a joke. Three months ago, when Van der Velden presented her latest project at an industry conference in Zurich, it touched off one of Hollywood’s most heated debates yet over AI and performance, one that still hasn’t fully cooled.
Van der Velden, 39, came up as an actor before pivoting into production, eventually landing in London, where she founded Particle6, a digital production company known for short-form video work for broadcasters and major platforms. She was in Zurich to introduce its newest offshoot, Xicoia, an AI studio designed to build and manage original synthetic characters for entertainment, advertising and social media. “It’s not a talent agency — we’re making characters,” she says. “So it’s really like a Marvel universe studio in a way.”
Eline van der Velden, creator of the AI-constructed Tilly Norwood, at Web Summit 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal.
(Florencia Tan Jun/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Tilly Norwood was meant to be the first and most visible example of that approach. Conceived as a recurring character with an unfolding story arc, Tilly was built to exist across short-form videos and scripted scenarios. As part of the Zurich presentation, Van der Velden screened a short satirical video titled “AI Commissioner,” introducing Tilly as a “100% AI-generated” actor — smiling on a red carpet and breaking down on a talk-show couch.
Other short videos featuring Tilly had already circulated online, including a montage placing her in familiar movie genres and a parody riffing on Sydney Sweeney’s controversial American Eagle jeans ad (“My genes are binary”). The “AI Commissioner” video itself had been posted on YouTube months earlier. By then, photorealistic synthetic characters were no longer novel and similar experiments were spreading online.
In Hollywood, it triggered an immediate backlash. Press accounts out of Zurich, amplified by Van der Velden’s remark that Tilly might soon be signed to an agent, collided with an industry already on edge about AI. Van der Velden was stunned at the intensity of the outcry: “Tilly was meant to be for entertainment,” she says. “It’s not to be taken too seriously. I think people have taken her way too seriously.”
Across the industry, working actors, already facing shrinking opportunities, recoiled at the idea of a fabricated performer potentially taking real jobs. Some called for a boycott of any agents who might take on Norwood. Speaking to The Times, SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin demanded that the real-life actors used for AI modeling be compensated. “They need to know that it’s happening,” he said. “They need to give permission for it and they need to be bargained with.”
As the coverage ricocheted far beyond the trades and went global, the reaction escalated just as quickly. Asked when she knew Tilly had struck a nerve, Van der Velden answers matter-of-factly: “When I got the death threats. That’s when I was like, oh — this has taken a very different turn.”
Van der Velden understands why the idea of a synthetic performer unsettled people, especially in a business already raw from layoffs, strikes and contraction. “Tilly is showing what we can do with the tech at this moment in time, and that is frightening,” she says. But she argues that much of the backlash rests on fears that, in her view, haven’t yet materialized — at least not in the way people imagine them.
Tilly Norwood, an AI construct created by Particle6.
(Particle6)
“There’s a bad reputation around AI,” she says. “People try to swing all sorts of things at it, like, ‘Oh, it’s taking my job.’ Well, I don’t know of anyone whose acting job has actually been taken by AI. And Tilly certainly hasn’t taken anyone’s job.”
Union representatives argue that displacement is already occurring through subtler mechanisms: background roles increasingly filled by digital doubles, commercials replacing actors with synthetic performers and projects that never get greenlighted because AI offers a cheaper alternative. The impact shows up not in pink slips but in opportunities that vanish before auditions are ever held.
Even as the controversy grew, Van der Velden says she began hearing something else privately. Producers and executives reached out, curious about what Tilly could do, with several asking about placing the character in traditional film or television projects — offers she says she declined. “That’s not what Tilly was made for,” she says.
Van der Velden insists the character was never intended to replace actors, framing Tilly instead as part of a different creative lineage, closer to animation. “I was an actor myself — I absolutely love actors,” she says. “I love pointing a camera at a real actress. Please don’t stop casting actors. That’s not the aim of the game.”
With a background in musical theater and physics, Van der Velden spent her early career in Los Angeles acting, improvising at Upright Citizens Brigade and making YouTube sketches. An alter ego she created, Miss Holland — designed to make fun of rigid beauty standards — won an online comedy award and helped launch her career in the U.K., where she founded Particle6.
Tilly began as an exercise: Could Van der Velden design a virtual character who felt instantly familiar, the kind of approachable young woman audiences would naturally be drawn to? “It’s like building a Barbie doll,” she says, noting at one point she considered making Tilly half robot. “I had fun making her. It was a creative itch.”
She pushes back on the idea that synthetic characters are simply stitched together from parts of real people. “People think you take this actress’ eyes and nose and that actress’ mouth,” she says. “That’s not how it works at all.”
Over six months, a team of about 15 people at Particle6 worked on developing Tilly, generating more than 2,000 visual versions and testing nearly 200 names before selecting Tilly Norwood, one that fit what Van der Velden calls the “English rose” aesthetic they were looking for and wasn’t already taken. “It’s very human-led,” Van der Velden says, likening AI tools to a calculator for creatives. “You need taste. You need judgment. You still have to call the shots.”
Even as the technology advances, the uncanny valley remains a stubborn barrier. Van der Velden says Tilly has improved over the last six months, but only through sustained human steering. “It takes a lot of work to get it right,” she says.
That labor, she says, is what separates an emerging form of storytelling worth taking seriously from AI slop. “I’ve seen some genuinely amazing work coming out of AI filmmaking,” she says. “It’s a different art form but a real one.”
She sees Tilly less as a provocation than as a reflection. “She represents this moment of fear in our industry as a piece of art. But I would say to people: Don’t be fearful. We can’t wish AI away. It’s here. The question is, how do we use it positively?”
Her focus now is on what she calls Tilly’s “inside” — the personality, memory and backstory that give the character continuity over time. That interior life is being built with Particle6’s proprietary system, DeepFame, software designed to give the character memory and behavioral consistency from one appearance to the next.
“People ask me things like what her favorite food is,” Van der Velden says. “I’m not going to answer for Tilly. She has a voice of her own. I’d rather you ask her yourself — very soon.”
Hollywood fights back
While Van der Velden wishes the industry were less afraid of what AI might become, Alexandra Shannon is helping Hollywood arm itself for what’s already here.
As head of strategic development at Creative Artists Agency, one of the industry’s most powerful agencies, Shannon works with actors, filmmakers and estates trying to navigate what generative technology means for their work — and their identities.
The questions she hears tend to fall into two camps. “First is, how do I protect myself — my likeness, my voice, my work?” she says. “And then there’s the flip side: How do I engage with this, but do it safely?”
Those concerns led to the creation of the CAA Vault, a secure repository for approved digital scans of a client’s face and voice. Shannon describes it as a way to capture a likeness once, then allow performers to decide when and where it can be used — for example, in one shot created for one film. It doesn’t eliminate uncertainty, she says, but it gives talent something they’ve rarely had since AI companies entered the picture: control.
“There’s a legitimate way to work with them,” she adds. “Anything outside that isn’t authorized.”
Creative Artists Agency’s headquarters in Century City, where talent representatives are grappling with how to protect clients’ likenesses.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Those risks are no longer abstract. Unauthorized AI-generated images and videos resembling Scarlett Johansson have circulated online. Deepfake ads have falsely enlisted Tom Hanks to promote medical products. AI-generated images have placed Taylor Swift in fabricated scenarios she never endorsed. Once a likeness becomes live and responsive, Shannon says, control can erode quickly.
For all the panic around AI, Shannon rejects the idea that digital likeness will undercut human stars overnight. “It’s not about all of a sudden you can work with Brad Pitt and you can do it for a fraction of the cost,” Shannon says. “That is not where we see the market going.”
What CAA is intent on preserving, she says, isn’t just a face or a voice but the accumulated meaning of a career.
“For an individual artist, their body of work is built over years of creative decisions — what roles to take, what brands or companies to work with, and just as importantly, what roles not to do, what companies not to support,” she adds. “That body of work is a fundamental expression of who they are.”
Shannon doesn’t dispute that the tools are improving or that some AI-native personas will find an audience. But she believes their growth will sharpen, not weaken, what distinguishes human performance in the first place. “In a world where there’s this vast proliferation of AI-generated content, people will continue to crave live, shared, human-centered experiences,” she contends. “I think it’s only going to make those things more valuable.”
Not everyone is convinced the balance will tilt so neatly.
“The genie’s out of the bottle,” Christopher Travers says by phone from Atlanta, where he runs Travers Tech, advising companies and individual creators on generative video and digital-identity strategy. “There are now more than a million characters across all sorts of media, from VTubers to AI-generated performers.”
Travers got his start in generative AI with the backing of Mark Cuban, founding Virtual Humans in 2019, a startup focused on computer-generated performers and digital identities. These days, his journey would have been much easier. “It costs nearly nothing now,” he says. “And when cost drops, volume increases. There’s pressure on celebrities to keep up.”
Having watched countless virtual characters come and go, Travers wasn’t particularly impressed with Tilly Norwood herself. What mattered to him was the reaction.
“Tilly is maybe 1% of the story,” he says. “The other 99% is the worry and the fear. What it did was strike a chord. We all needed to have this conversation.”
What stardom looks like now
Few people have spent more time inside Hollywood’s old star-making system than mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, whose films like “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Top Gun” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” helped turn actors into global commodities.
Even amid the disruption reshaping Hollywood, he believes the industry still knows how to discover and elevate stars. “It’ll happen,” he told The Times earlier this year. “Timothée Chalamet is a star and Zendaya is a star. Glen Powell is becoming a star — we’re going to bring him up. Damson Idris is going to be a star. Now they have to be smart and make good choices on what they do. That’s up to them.”
Stellan Skarsgård as Luthen Rael in the series “Andor.”
(Des Willie / Lucasfilm Ltd.)
The industry may still know how to make stars, but keeping them there has become harder. Chalamet’s biggest box office successes, like “Wonka” and the “Dune” films, have arrived as part of franchises rather than as standalone vehicles. Powell’s latest film, last month’s remake of “The Running Man,” fell short of expectations.
Bruckheimer himself has been pragmatic about AI. During postproduction on his recent Brad Pitt–led Formula One drama, an AI-based voice-matching tool was briefly used to replicate Pitt’s voice when the actor was unavailable for looping, a demonstration of how AI can extend a star’s reach rather than replace them. “AI is only going to get more useful for people in our business,” he says.
If Hollywood has been having more difficulty launching fresh faces, it has become adept at keeping familiar ones on the screen. AI tools can smooth a face, rebuild a voice or extend a performance long after an actor might otherwise have aged out. Stardom no longer has to end with retirement — or even death.
Stellan Skarsgård, for one, is uneasy with the idea. In recent years, the veteran actor — a current Oscar front-runner for “Sentimental Value” — has been part of two of Hollywood’s most valuable franchises, playing Luthen Rael in the “Star Wars” series “Andor” and Baron Harkonnen in the “Dune” films, roles built to carry on through sequels and spinoffs.
Asked about the prospect of an AI version of himself playing those characters after he’s gone, the 75-year-old Skarsgård bristles. The question carries particular weight. Three years ago he suffered a stroke, an experience that forced a reckoning with his craft and sense of mortality.
“SAG has been very adamant — there was a strike about it,” Skarsgård says. “And I do hope it won’t be like that in the future, that it will be controlled and that money won’t have all the rights.” He pauses. “You should have rights as a person, to your own voice, your own personality.”
Those questions — about control, consent and what survives a person — moved from the abstract to the practical last month at Hollywood X on the Fox lot.
Onstage, Jeff Clanagan mentioned a documentary that Hartbeat, Kevin Hart’s entertainment company, is producing with the estate of comedian Bernie Mac, who died in 2008. Built around Mac’s own audiobook narration, the documentary will rely on authorized existing recordings, not newly generated performances, pairing traditional animation with AI-assisted imagery to visualize moments Mac had already described. Clanagan said the technology offered a faster, less expensive way to bring those scenes to life.
But that took some convincing. An Oscar-winning director attached to the project initially wanted to tell the story entirely through traditional animated reenactments. Clanagan said it took months of persuasion — including creating sample scenes to demonstrate the approach — before that resistance eased. “Once he saw it, he was converted, and now we’re doing a little bit of a hybrid,” he said.
That work, Clanagan added, has become part of the job, not just externally but inside Hartbeat as well. “Part of it is educating the talent community on what you can do and still be aligned,” he said, noting that much of the hesitation comes from fear stoked by headlines and unfamiliarity with the tools. “It’s about helping people understand the process. People are starting to believe.”
As the Hollywood X panel ended, attendees filed out of a theater named for Darryl F. Zanuck, one of the architects of the studio-era star system, then crossed the Fox lot toward a reception. Along the way, they passed by cavernous soundstages, some painted with towering murals: Marilyn Monroe in “The Seven Year Itch,” Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music,” Bruce Willis in “Die Hard.” Faces from another era, still watching as the industry weighs what will endure.
