‘The CGI would have cost millions. I spent $2,000.’ Is Dreams of Violets AI slop – or the future of film-making?

It should have taken years, but Ash Koosha made a drama about Iran’s anti-government protests in weeks – and now it’s the first AI-made movie to screen at a major film festival. It could transform indie film-making, claims the director

‘You can be made a laughing stock to millions’: can gen Z escape the fear of being cringe?

With the constant risk of being recorded, many young people are afraid of showing enthusiasm – let alone doing something so potentially embarrassing as dancing in public. Is there a way to set themselves free?

Sydney academic used AI to write SMH opinion piece urging students to avoid using tech to ‘cut corners’

Sydney Morning Herald removes piece by Cath Ellis, despite Western Sydney University saying her use of AI was ‘appropriate’

Chip, chip … boom? South Korea tech makers join the trillion-dollar club but some fear a short-circuit looms

South Korea’s Kospi stock market has hit record highs thanks to AI, but experts urge caution over boom-bust cycles and a heavy reliance on two chipmakers

You hunch over a screen all day. Six small upgrades to relax your tight neck and achy back

Find relief from back pain and muscle tension with picks our contributors love, like slip-on shoes and thick cushions

Trump signs executive order seeking early access to new AI releases

Under new rules, tech companies will be asked to share AI models with government for review before public release

Masters of the Universe review – Amazon’s He-Man adventure is a weak big-budget misfire

A laboured attempt to resurrect toy IP very few people still care about is a $200m-budgeted waste of everyone’s time

The Misfits: Marilyn Monroe’s final film showed her capacity for playing painfully knotty characters

Written for Monroe by then husband Arthur Miller, the role of Roslyn is contradictory and complex

Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day review – dreamy adaptation reaches for the stars

Woolf’s novel about a headstrong young Edwardian woman takes flight under Tina Gharavi’s direction, with Timothy Spall and Jennifer Saunders among the ensemble cast

Anthropic surges as OpenAI struggles to keep up

Stock market filing illustrates AI company’s meteoric rise, while California’s tech billionaires pour cash into elections

Google owner Alphabet to sell $80bn in stock to fund AI spending spree

Markets take note as world’s biggest equity fundraiser bids to garner more money than the three biggest-ever IPOs combined

How will AI sycophancy change us? Early signs are not encouraging

Constant validation and flattery from AI chatbots poses a serious risk to society and our shared grasp of reality, writes Arwa Mahdawi

‘The face doesn’t move’: Hollywood’s obsession with cosmetic surgeries has led to stiffer looks – and performances

With procedures like filler and Botox becoming commonplace, audiences are lamenting the smoothed-out, uncanny faces now rampant in major pictures

Planet Israel review – valuable personal documentary about Israel/Palestine conflict

Gillian Mosely’s film argues that Israelis are asked to accept a ‘forever war’ in part motivated by Netanyahu’s desire to defer investigation into corruption allegations

‘All the girls were in there for shit that is pretty normal’: the show reinventing Girl, Interrupted for a new generation

Susanna Kaysen’s cult memoir sparked a wave of novels about young women in crisis. After 10 years in the making, Juliana Canfield and King Princess bring it to the stage