Latest news with #Hollo
Fox News
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
‘Battlestar Galactica' star says show's AI warnings more timely as sci-fi fantasies come to life
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — "Battlestar Galactica" star Tricia Helfer feels the show was a prescient warning about artificial intelligence when it debuted more than 20 years ago. "We did warn against AI while we were shooting it," Helfer told Fox News Digital at the Beverly Hills Film Festival this week. She continued, "It was 20 years ago, and I've recently re-watched it and went, 'Oh my gosh, it's even more relevant now.' So I think we just really need to be careful. It's a slippery slope between using it to our advantage and having it maybe be able to control us a little bit." "I think we're a little bit far off from the humanoid Cylons yet and humanoid robots, but I don't know, they're coming," Helfer added. "Battlestar Galactica" debuted on the SyFy channel in 2004, reimagined from the 1978 original series, and follows the battle between humans and Cylons, the humanoid sentient robots humans created that turned on them and launched a nuclear attack that nearly wiped out the entirety of humanity. Helfer played a Cylon in the series, named Number Six, who played a key role in the story as both antagonist and ally. Regarding AI, the Canadian-born actress said, "It's not going away, so I think it's something that we're going to have to embrace. But I think one of the things 'Battlestar Galactica' did was warn about it. And that's, I think, something that we need to make sure [is] that we have is regulations and an understanding of how quickly and how overwhelming this technology could become." WATCH: 'Battlestar Galactica' star says show's AI warnings more relevant than ever A "Battlestar Galactica" reboot was in the works at Peacock with Sam Esmail, the showrunner behind "Mr. Robot," but it has since been halted and shopped elsewhere, per Variety. In 2023, Esmail spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how the new version's view of AI would be evolving from the original. "The world is changing way too fast for us. I mean, when we started working on it, I obviously was aware of AI, but now, four or five years later, it's in the public consciousness and now that's so influential in how we're going to tell the story," Esmail told the outlet. "The allegory piece is something that is crystallized in a different way, too. The focus is the same, which is the fear of tech and how it might take over, but this idea of just 'the robots are going to be our overlords' is a very facile and overly simplistic way of looking at it. Now that the audience is more sophisticated about the consequences, I think we have to match that with 'Battlestar.'" "It's a slippery slope between using it to our advantage and having it maybe be able to control us a little bit." While Helfer believes humanoid robots are still in the somewhat distant future, there are some attempts to create them in the present day. Suzanne Somers' widower, Alan Hamel, recently worked with an AI company called Hollo to create a "twin" of his late wife. "I am working with Hollo, an AI company to create Suzanne AI. It's very exciting to think about being able to interact with Suzanne's twin," Hamel told Fox News Digital in a statement last month. The robot replica of Somers trained on her film and TV appearances, as well as her books, to bring back the "essence" of the "Three's Company" star, according to CEO Rex Wong. When it came to the Suzanne AI, Wong said, "The robot, which we did in collaboration with Realbotix, is the first of many AI versions of Suzanne, but AI Suzanne can also be accessible via call, chat and text. AI Suzanne highlights how we can extend a person's legacy and bring it to the next generation, and one of the services we will be rolling out will be the ability to preserve one's legacy for future generations or bring back a loved one." Somers died in 2023 after a long battle with breast cancer. Hamel told the New York Post that the idea for the Somers AI-powered bot "absolutely did come from her" and that "She may have known her life was going to be shortened [after a lifelong battle with cancer]."
Fox News
28-03-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Suzanne Somers' husband creates late wife's AI ‘twin' modeled after ‘Three's Company' character
Suzanne Somers passed away two years ago, but her memory lives on, not only through her Hollywood career and businesses, but artificial intelligence too. Her widower, Alan Hamel, worked with an AI company called Hollo to create a "twin" of his late wife. "I am working with Hollo, an AI company to create Suzanne AI. It's very exciting to think about being able to interact with Suzanne's twin," Hamel told Fox News Digital in a statement. At Roth 25, an annual conference that brings together 450 AI companies to meet with investors, Hamel was a guest speaker and did a demonstration with the "Suzanne robot." "Suzanne was the only major star there and two investors with whom I spoke had some very interesting ideas about acquiring Suzanne AI. AI is already changing the world, and I lay awake at night thinking of all the applications from Suzanne AI that will continue her commitment with her 27 books to make the world a better place," Hamel shared. He added, "Suzanne AI will live at the company we both created over 44 years ago with global branding that today is a legacy site that specializes in certified toxic free." Rex Wong, CEO of also shared a statement with Fox News Digital, explaining, "We have been working with Alan Hamel, Suzanne's widower and CEO of to bring the essence of Suzanne back to life in different ways. Suzanne wrote 27 books, mostly on health and wellness, in her lifetime and Alan wanted to preserve her knowledge and legacy and saw what we were able to do with our AI Twin technology." He noted that "AI Suzanne was also trained on a lot of her TV and radio interviews as well as clips from her film/TV work. In addition, we interviewed Alan about his relationship with Suzanne and he additionally provided personal and background information." WATCH: SUZANNE SOMERS WILL 'FOREVER BE GRATEFUL' FOR 'THREE'S COMPANY' allows anybody to create a twin of themselves. Their main technology is their "AI Personality Engine," which is able to "capture the personality, speech patterns, emotions and knowledge of a person and deliver it in a very human-like conversational way. Users will be able to create their AI Twin in a few minutes by taking a selfie and talking for a few minutes introducing themselves and an AI Twin of them is created that can talk, chat, and sound just like them and can talk in 32 languages." The company is launching an app in April. When it came to the Suzanne AI, Wong said, "The robot, which we did in collaboration with Realbotix, is the first of many AI versions of Suzanne but AI Suzanne can also be accessible via call, chat and text. AI Suzanne highlights how we can extend a person's legacy and bring it to the next generation and one of the services we will be rolling out will be the ability to preserve one's legacy for future generations or bring back a loved one. "We have found so many people that have kept phone numbers of a passed loved one just so they can listen to the voice of their loved one once again. We think our AI now allows them to do more than just listen, but instead be able talk, interact and even get wisdom and advice from their passed loved ones." Hamel and Somers were married for 46 years, saying "I do" in 1977 and staying together until her death from breast cancer in 2023. Last year, the 88-year-old opened up about the special bond he shared with his late wife. "We were so resonant that we'd come out of our closets wearing exactly the same colors and crack up," he told Fox News Digital. "We would communicate while silent. We took a 3,000-mile drive and there were hours we'd not speak, but we knew we were thinking similar thoughts." According to Hamel, the idea for an AI twin was something Somers had been on board with before her death. He told The New York Post it "absolutely did come from her," and, "She may have known her life was going to be shortened [after a lifelong battle with cancer]." Hamel also told the outlet that he has additional plans for Somers' AI replica, including reaching out to the distributor of "Three's Company" and the estate of John Ritter to create their own AI of the late actor, and produce additional episodes. "I think she would smile a lot and be really happy about it," he said. "She would endorse it. I'm happy about it. My family is happy about it. "One of these days the world will see Suzanne Somers again," he added.
