WSJ Tech News Briefing

Episode: The Race to Run AI From Space
Date: December 12, 2025
Host: Katie Dayton
Featured Guests: Ellen Gammerman (WSJ reporter), Micah Madenberg (WSJ space reporter)

Overview

This episode of the WSJ Tech News Briefing delves into two bleeding-edge developments in technology:

1. The controversial rise of AI-generated actors in Hollywood, centering on the debut of Tilly Norwood—the industry's first fully AI-created movie star.
2. The ambitious push by tech moguls to move data-heavy AI infrastructure beyond Earth’s atmosphere, with companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin planning to run data centers in orbit.

Both segments highlight the rapidly advancing intersection of artificial intelligence with creative industries and global infrastructure, raising urgent questions about human replacement, technical feasibility, and the future of tech innovation.

Segment 1: Tilly Norwood—Hollywood’s First AI Actress

[00:19-05:46]

Key Discussion Points

• Introduction to Tilly Norwood

  • Tilly is a brown-haired, brown-eyed, 24-year-old AI-generated actress, intended as Hollywood’s first AI movie star.
  • She was created over six months and has already sparked controversy. Her persona is described as sassy and oddly self-aware (01:41).

• Her Creator: Aline van der Velden

  • London-based, former actress, and head of an AI production studio.
  • Created Tilly after seeing the emergence of AI influencers and predicting AI movie stars as the “next thing” in entertainment (02:29).
  • Van der Velden’s background includes making comic videos for YouTube and BBC3.

• Personality and Public Perception

  • Tilly is still in development—her “brain” and personality are actively being built to enable future one-on-one interactions with fans (01:41).
  • A notable quote from Ellen Gammerman:

    “She’s a little bit sassy, but she’s also a little bit weirdly self-aware. Like she calls herself the end of civilization because so many people have been so upset about her being created.” [01:47]

• Industry Backlash and Fears

  • Tilly’s announcement met immediate criticism, notably from director James Cameron who reportedly called her “horrifying” (03:18).
  • Concerns center on the potential for AI to render traditional jobs obsolete, now extending from technical to creative fields (03:35).
  • Quote from Gammerman:

    “It’s tapping into these fears that everyone there is replaceable, including now actors… this could start seeping into the creative arena.” [03:35]

• Aline’s Response to Criticism

  • She sees AI film as a separate creative domain, not aimed at replacement but expansion:

    “AI can build worlds in ways that traditional filmmaking can’t… there’s a kind of a creative renaissance.” [04:00]

  • Many in the industry remain skeptical about coexistence without competition.

• Hollywood’s Secret Interest

  • Van der Velden has signed more than 60 NDAs with Hollywood “players” interested in AI or hybrid films; current projects are cloaked in secrecy, reflecting industry caution (05:03).

Memorable Moments

• The suggestion that Tilly “calls herself the end of civilization” (01:47) encapsulates the satire and unease surrounding Hollywood’s AI evolution.

Segment 2: The New Orbital Data Center Space Race

[06:35-12:05]

Key Discussion Points

• The Premise: Why Move Data Centers to Space?

  • Rationale includes ground-based challenges like supply chain delays, high construction costs, and massive energy needs (07:16).

  • Proponents point to abundant solar energy in space and falling launch/component costs making the idea more feasible than ever before.

  • Quote from Micah Madenberg:

    “The pull factor is literally straight out of science fiction… we’re at the point where launch costs and satellite component production costs maybe are low enough to make that science fiction dream a reality.” [07:48]

• Technical Vision: Thousands of Smaller Satellites

  • Rather than few giant data centers, the concept involves launching “thousands upon thousands of satellites” in networked constellations (08:24).
  • Smaller satellites linked as clusters are argued to be more practical for data transmission than monolithic structures.

• Cost and Feasibility Challenges

  • SpaceX’s Starlink currently operates the world’s largest satellite network (~9,000 satellites), illustrating the difficulty in just achieving the scale required (09:01).
  • Even with declining costs, launching and maintaining vast networks would incur “costs that pile up really, really quickly” (09:01).
  • Further, uncertainties about terrestrial improvements (new energy sources, easier construction) mean ground-based AI data centers could remain competitive.

• Who’s Investing, and How Seriously?

  • Google and Planet Labs are planning an AI compute satellite experiment for 2027 (10:19).
  • Blue Origin (Bezos) and SpaceX (Musk) are leading major, ongoing efforts.
  • Even Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, is reportedly seeking rocket partnerships to enable orbital expansion (10:19).

• A Potential New Industry

  • If feasible, this could spark a boom in spacecraft launches and a new sector around space-based AI computation.
  • However, the endeavor is “unproven with both engineering and technical and immense cost hurdles” (11:30).

Notable Quotes

• On the promise and skepticism of the orbital race:

  “It’s just, you have to come back to time and again that this is just an idea at this point. This is unproven with both engineering and technical and immense cost hurdles.” —Micah Madenberg [11:30]

Memorable Moments

• Host Katie Dayton’s summary of the “2025 story trifecta”—Musk, Bezos, and AI—captures the episode’s zeitgeist (06:35).

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Ellen Gammerman:

  “She’s a little bit sassy, but she’s also a little bit weirdly self-aware. Like she calls herself the end of civilization because so many people have been so upset about her being created.” [01:47]

• Ellen Gammerman:

  “It’s tapping into these fears that everyone there is replaceable, including now actors… this could start seeping into the creative arena.” [03:35]

• Ellen Gammerman (via Van der Velden):

  “AI can build worlds in ways that traditional filmmaking can’t… there’s a kind of a creative renaissance.” [04:00]

• Micah Madenberg:

  “The pull factor is literally straight out of science fiction… we’re at the point where launch costs and satellite component production costs maybe are low enough to make that science fiction dream a reality.” [07:48]

• Micah Madenberg:

  “It’s just, you have to come back to time and again that this is just an idea at this point. This is unproven with both engineering and technical and immense cost hurdles.” [11:30]

Timestamps of Important Segments

• [00:19] — Introduction to Tilly Norwood, the AI actress
• [01:41] — Building Tilly’s personality and her “sassy” traits
• [02:29] — Background of her creator, Aline van der Velden
• [03:18] — Industry backlash and James Cameron’s criticism
• [04:00] — Van der Velden’s vision for AI film as an art form
• [05:03] — Secret Hollywood interest; NDAs and the future of AI movies
• [06:35] — Shift to the orbital AI data center “space race”
• [07:16] — Rationale for moving data centers to space
• [08:24] — Feasibility: design based on massive satellite networks
• [09:01] — Practical and financial obstacles
• [10:19] — Current investments, major players, and plans for experiments
• [11:30] — The nascent state of the orbital data center industry

Tone & Style

The episode is investigative and future-focused, mixing journalistic skepticism with fascination for radical new frontiers. The host and guests blend accessible explanations with industry insights, all in the concise, authoritative tone characteristic of WSJ reporting.

Summary

This episode explores the radical ambitions reshaping both Hollywood and global tech infrastructure. The arrival of AI-generated actors like Tilly Norwood provokes existential anxiety in creative industries, while the race to run AI from space is rife with both promise and skepticism—underscoring the disruptive, still uncharted world unfolding at the intersection of AI and human enterprise.