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By JAKE COYLE

NEW YORK (AP) — Like thousands of actors, Tilly Norwood is looking for a Hollywood agent.

But unlike most young performers aspiring to make it in the film industry, Tilly Norwood is an entirely artificial intelligence-made character. Norwood, dubbed Hollywood’s first “AI actor,” is the product of a company named Xicoia, which bills itself as the world’s first artificial intelligence talent studio.

Since the Dutch producer and comedian Eline Van der Velden launched the digital character’s prospective career, Tilly Norwood has been all the talk in Hollywood.

But not in a good way. Guilds, actors and filmmakers have met the Xicoia product with an immediate wave of backlash, protesting that artificial intelligence should not have a starring role in the acting profession. In a statement Tuesday, the Screen Actors Guild said that “creativity is, and should remain, human-centered.”

“To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation,” the guild said. “It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.” read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is suing Zillow and Redfin, accusing the real estate companies of entering what the regulator says is an illegal deal to suppress competition in online rental advertising.

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In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the FTC alleges that this agreement started in February — when Zillow paid Redfin $100 million. In exchange for that and other compensation, the commission said, Redfin agreed to end contracts with advertising partners, stop competing ads for multifamily properties for up to nine years and serve as a syndicator of Zillow listings on its own sites. read more

NEW YORK (AP) — OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into a virtual merchant that can help sell goods for Etsy and Shopify as the artificial intelligence company looks for new revenue in online commerce.

ChatGPT users can now buy directly from Etsy sellers while interacting with the chatbot and will soon be able to do the same with Shopify sellers.

Competing with the likes of Amazon and Google for purchase fees from digital shopping could be a new source of money for OpenAI. The company hasn’t made a profit and has relied on investors to back the costs of building and running its powerful AI systems.

OpenAI said it is working with payments company Stripe on the technical standards that will enable purchases through the “Instant Checkout” system.

A number of payment companies have been working with AI developers on so-called AI agents that, given a credit card, could find and make purchases on a shopper’s behalf.

OpenAI said ChatGPT won’t favor these items in its product results.

“When ranking multiple merchants that sell the same product, ChatGPT considers factors like availability, price, quality, whether a merchant is the primary seller, and whether Instant Checkout is enabled, to optimize the user experience,” the company said in a statement. read more

By JANIE HAR

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Police in Northern California were understandably perplexed when they pulled over a Waymo taxi after it made an illegal U-turn, only to find no driver behind the wheel and therefore, no one to ticket.

The San Bruno Police Department wrote in now viral weekend social media posts that officers were conducting a DUI operation early Saturday morning when a self-driving Waymo made the illegal turn in front of them.

Officers stopped the vehicle, but declined to write a ticket as their “citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot’.”

“That’s right … no driver, no hands, no clue,” read the post, which was accompanied by photos of an officer peering into the car.

Officers contacted Waymo to report what they called a “glitch,” and in the post, they said they hope reprogramming will deter more illegal moves.

The department’s Facebook post has generated more than 500 comments, with many people outraged that police didn’t ticket the company. People also wanted to know how police got the car to pull over. read more

Winter Park’s year-end festivities will be called “Holidays on Park,” dropping last year’s Christmas branding, as the executive director and three board members of the business group overseeing holiday decorations for the city exit in the wake of a controversy over what to call the celebration.

Carina Sexton announced Monday she was leaving the executive director’s post she’s had since April 2023, according to Alan Chambers, president of the Park Avenue District board. Exiting the board are Vice President Tracy Brand-Liffey, owner of New General Café; Tracy Klingler, who owns lifestyle boutique Frank; and Ginny Enstad of Ginny’s Orchids.

Chambers said none of the departures were connected to the festivity-naming brouhaha, which blew up several weeks ago when city officials at the urging of some residents asked the group to drop the name “Christmas on Park,” which it had just adopted in 2024.

City officials reasoned that events begin in mid-November, run through New Year’s Day and acknowledge other holidays such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. read more