AI ‘stars’ like Tilly Norwood and Xania Monet are raking in millions, much to the horror of critics — but their creators are hitting back
NY Post
A quick trip to the bathroom changed Eline Van der Velden’s life — and Hollywood — forever.
There, in the privacy of her porcelain escape, the artificial intelligence innovator was hit with a stroke of genius. Though it would ultimately irk the A-list likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Emily Blunt, Natasha Lyonne, Ryan Reynolds and top dogs at the Screen Actors Guild.
“I remember it really clearly. In February 2025, I went to the bathroom, and then I came back to chat to the team, and I said, ‘This is what we’re going to do — make an AI actress. I think it’d be really fun,’” Van der Velden, a Dutch comedy actor and physicist, based in the UK, exclusively told The Post with a laugh. “We had originally [called her] the ‘Scarlett Johansson of AI.’”
To engineer the faux Scar-Jo, Van der Velden and her team of 15 creators at Particle 6, a London-based AI production studio, immediately sprang into action.
Utilizing 10 AI-generation tools and platforms, such as DeepSeek, ChatGPT, ElevenLabs and Gemini, they drafted 2,000 iterations of their cyber showgirl before finally creating Tilly Norwood — a 24-year-old British brunette with girl-next-door allure.
The visionaries spent hours laboring over her name, ensuring it sounded authentically British and universally unique. For her comely appeal, they designed her physique to resemble that of a “beautiful, whitish-looking young woman” who’d resonate with global audiences.
The killing of Iran’s tyrannical Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday in an unprecedented joint military attack by the US and Israel called Operation Epic Fury set off widespread celebrations from Iranians around the world — as President Trump said it would give them their “greatest chance” to “take back the country.” Meanwhile, in Iran, a lack of internet has made it impossible for Iranians to easily communicate daily conditions. Over a period of three days, with limited VPN connection, an eyewitness currently in Tehran — who, for her safety, is concealing her identity — shared her account of life under a country in the midst of battle with The Post’s Natasha Pearlman.
After exactly 120 years, the curtain has fallen on the Theater District institution Barbetta, with the iconic Italian restaurant having served its final course Friday night.