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One World with Zain Asher

Nation Marks The 25th Anniversary Of 9/11 Terror Attacks; Anthropic: Blocked Possible Attempts To Use A.I. To Develop Bioweapons; NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Shakes hands With Rudy Giuliani; The Rise Of Islamophobia In America Following The 9/11 Attacks; CNN Speaks To A.I.-Generated Actress Tilly Norwood; Aired 12-1p ET

Aired September 11, 2026 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:48]

ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Coming to you live from New York, I'm Zain Asher. You're watching the second hour of "One World."

A day of extraordinary heroism in America's darkest hour. Twenty-five years ago, the Twin Towers fell during the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks.

Today, America and its allies unite under the one goal to never forget. Happening now, the names of nearly 3,000 victims are being read aloud at

Ground Zero. We've already witnessed six moments of silence. One for each of the tragic milestones of that terrible day.

(CELLO PLAYING)

American cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, played a hauntingly beautiful music at the New York ceremony. And for the first time, there will be a seventh moment of

silence. It will honor thousands of people who have died from diseases linked to the toxic ash exposure from the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Today's ceremony has brought together all living former American presidents and first ladies, includes George W. Bush, who was president at the time.

(BELL TOLLING)

On that fateful day, passengers on board United Airlines Flight 93 fought back against the hijackers. The plane was targeting Washington, but instead

crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

President Donald Trump decided not to attend the ceremony in New York because politicians are not allowed to speak at the Ground Zero event.

Instead, he spoke at the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because of that spirit, when future generations come here in 25, 100, or 250 years from now, they will

stand in a nation that is free and unyielding in the face of evil, and they will still honor the heroes of 9/11/2001, who no age will erase from the

memory of time. It will never ever be forgotten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Brynn Gingras is tracking the very moving 9/11 ceremony. She joins us live now from New York.

I think, Brynn, I can hear behind you the names of those 3,000 victims being read aloud. And, you know, it's so important for the 3,000 not to be

reduced to yet another sort of tragic statistic. It's so important to remember that those people had lives that existed right before that

Tuesday. They had hopes, they had dreams, they had ordinary plans for the weekend. And I think really worth noting that they shouldn't be reduced to

how they died.

Just talk to us about the -- the very sort of human aspect of this, the human toll of 9/11, Brynn.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, Zain, I'm really happy you mentioned that. I mean, you're reminded of that. Every time a

name is read, I mean, we just heard a woman's name. She died here. And then right after they announced her name, they said, and her unborn baby. I

mean, think about that. A woman who was planning to have a child who had a bright future with a child just ahead of her.

I mean, those are the things you're reminded of or someone who mentions their grandparent or their parent and their dad they never met, but they

wish they did or they feel like they know them because they've heard so many stories about them. Those are the sort of things you just keep hearing

echoing here.

And you know what is so solemn and heavy to hear those things, but it's so important because, of course, it's the memory of these people, their lives

lost that we need to keep alive for everyone to understood -- to understand, rather, how big of a moment this was in our history and how it

needs to be retold and then never to be repeated, of course.

You know, Zain, in just a few minutes when the names are all finished being read, we are going to hear a seventh bell toll. Now, this is extremely

significant this year as part of the ceremony and will be part of the ceremony going forward every year.

And that seventh bell -- bell toll will be for those lives lost from 9/11 related illnesses. This is something that families work so hard to get --

to honor those victims because of they were the first responders. They were the people who came here in the face of tragedy, in the face of fear, and

they helped with the recovery process in the days and the weeks and the months after September 11, 2001.

[12:05:24]

And we heard from one woman who, right now, is fighting one of those illnesses, a cancer, and she has returned here every year. She says she

wants to be with the souls. And I want to hear more of what she had to say about the significance of this seventh bell toll.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SONIA AGRON, 9/11 RECOVERY WORKER: Ten thousand people have died because they were here, because they came to help. And in return, they got sick.

It's not just sick. They suffered.

So, all of us had to watch our loved ones on 9/11 wondering if they were going to come home. They came home. And now, we have sat down watching them

go through this again and us going through it again. And it just doesn't it. It just does not it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: And that woman telling me, Zain, that she knows someday that seventh bell is going to be rung and it's for her. I mean, think about

that. It's just so much sorrow, but also so much hope is shared here as well.

I talked to someone who was a first responder, Zain, who was in college and didn't, you know, have any sort of affiliation with New York City, was from

Ohio, but grew up on a farm and knew he could help, so he rushed down to Ground Zero. And for a week, he was trying to help find survivors or find

anything in the rubble.

So, I mean, some incredible stories that we hear all the time on 9/11. But again, it's so important to be repeated. And you definitely feel that

sense. You feel the emotion and you feel the gravity of the situation certainly when you're standing here at the -- at the reflection pools and

on this day.

ASHER: Absolutely. Brynn Gingras, live for us there. Thank you so much.

World leaders are also paying tribute to the victims of the September 11th attacks. At Buckingham Palace, this special changing of the guard ceremony

took place commemorating the 25th anniversary.

The British prime minister says the U.K. and U.S. stand together in memory of those who were lost.

Flags were flown at half-staff at NATO's headquarters in Brussels as well with the ceremony held there to commemorate the nearly 3,000 victims of the

attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT OUDKIRK, CHARGE D'AFFAIRES, U.S. MISSION TO NATO: We remember what followed how the free world, particularly our NATO allies, stood along the

United States in the years that followed.

Twenty-five years later, that bond of unity remains at the heart of this alliance. Our threats may change, but our commitment to each other remains

and it endures.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Joining us live now is Tom Nichols, staff writer at "The Atlantic." He's also the author of "Our Worst Enemy: The Assault from Within on Modern

Democracy."

We just heard the U.S. Charge d'Affaires for NATO speaking there and worth noting that September 11th, 2001 is the only time that Article Five has

been triggered.

Talk to us about, not just how 9/11 changed America, but really how it changed the world, Tom.

TOM NICHOLS, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Well, United States have changed us in, I think, very unfortunate ways. Understandably for the first two

years, we were focused on the terrorist threat. But then we institutionalized that fear. We institutionalized the kind of post 9/11

panic by creating a lot of agencies and laws and -- and regulations that really we didn't need. We didn't really need the Department of Homeland

Security. We didn't need a Patriot Act.

But in the moment, the answer was do something. The obvious thing, of course, was to wipe out terrorists nests in Afghanistan, which I think any

president, any American administration of any party would have had to do.

But I think we institutionalized the -- the panic from those first two years. It also changed the world in the sense that the Americans kind of

took themselves off the board for a lot of other threats.

I mean, other problems didn't go away. Russia, China, nuclear non- proliferation, climate change, all of those things remained. But for so many years, the United States became focused on terrorism as the worst

possible thing that could happen.

And the other countries did as well, but also it meant that almost anything that we didn't like or any situation we were uncomfortable with, we started

to call terrorism until the word almost had no meaning.

And that's unfortunate because the world remained a dangerous place regardless of whether or not Osama bin Laden was -- was caught.

[12:10:03]

But it was something we had to do. So, many Americans had to do for -- for at least a few years. I think it just lasted longer than it should have and

really had a -- an obvious consequence for America and the world.

ASHER: Tom, you bring up a very interesting point, this idea that, you know, from your perspective, that it didn't need to be Department of

Homeland Security, that didn't need to be a Patriot Act. I mean, obviously, hindsight is 20/20.

But at the time, I mean, I was only a teenager at the time, but I remember specifically that there was a general feeling that America had really

dropped the ball in terms of intelligence, in terms of being able to sort of understand and decipher that there was this threat.

And the time, intelligence in the United States was certainly fragmented, and there was this feeling that it needed to be much more centralized.

Now, obviously, with the Patriot Act, a lot of people talked about the fact that it maybe went too far in terms of overreach. And there was an issue

when it came to balancing security versus privacy and -- and surveillance and that sort of thing.

But it's an interesting perspective that you have -- you have that -- that America didn't need that at all. Just -- just explain that to me a bit

more.

NICHOLS: Well, we needed some of it. I mean, we -- we needed to cope with the fact that we were now dealing with transnational terrorists, rogue

states, weapons of mass destruction, potentially down the line, the -- the idea of using jetliners as missiles.

I mean, the -- the 9/11 commission referred to all of this as a failure of imagination, but that's hindsight. If you go back to 2001, you know, the

idea that we were this vulnerable was really hard for Americans to understand.

I think one thing to emphasize is that 9/11 was a pretty low-tech attack. It was 19 men with box cutters and a little bit of flight training. And I

think one mistake we made was to think that these terrorists were a lot more capable than they actually were.

You know, the -- we saw them in later bombings in places like London and Madrid, that you didn't really need guys in Afghanistan to pull that off.

You could do that by radicalizing people at home.

So, I -- I think while we absolutely needed to have better intelligence coordination, because a lot of our intelligence agencies in the United

States were still operating on old Cold War rules. And we definitely need to be able to trace money and things like that.

But I think the panicked response from governments to just do something was understandable, but we're still living with those measures 25 years later.

ASHER: Not to mention, you know, arguably, some would say the biggest mistake was the Iraq war, because America was squarely focused on this idea

of -- of preemptive attack. And also, you -- you bring up the sort of weapons of mass destruction, of which, of course, there was no evidence

for. How did that completely destabilize the Middle East?

Just -- just walk us through how the Iraq war, specifically, led us to where we are today.

NICHOLS: Well, the problem was that 9/11, after 9/11, both the United States, Great Britain, and -- and some other nations, took -- adopted the

idea that three separate threats, rogue states, nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, in general, and terrorism, had -- had threaded together

to become all the same threat.

And the United States and -- and the U.K., in particular, decided that the way we were going to solve this problem was to get to those threats before

they congeal and turn something dangerous and wipe them out.

And the -- the war in Iraq, I would argue, as I did at the time in -- in a recent retrospective that I worked for "The Atlantic," because I supported

the initial invasion.

I think the war in Iraq, the problem was not the justice of the cause or even the ability to conduct those military operations, it's everything that

happened afterwards, that, you know, when you invade a country, you have a responsibility to administer it and to keep peace. And I think that's

really where the United States dropped the ball and it introduced a lot of instability into the region. Because I think the understanding after that

was, we -- we knew how to commit and break things. We just weren't really good at putting it back together.

ASHER: Yes, especially when you think about the power vacuums that ensued afterwards.

Tom Nichols, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much for your perspective. We appreciate it.

We'll be right back with more after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:19]

ASHER: A new report has been released by artificial intelligence company, Anthropic, detailing how it blocked multiple accounts that were potentially

attempting to use A.I. to develop biological weapons that identified 35 incidents over 30 days that were potentially concerning.

Anthropic is noted for its Claude model and says it considers biological misuse one of the most serious risks to its A.I. models.

CNN's A.I. correspondent Hadas Gold is across this story today.

So, just in terms of what they said, though, they weren't necessarily sure that the research is going to use -- going to be used necessarily for

nefarious purposes, but they wanted to proceed with caution here.

Walk us what you know, Hadas.

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: So, Zain, this is part of a very lengthy report into all sorts of malicious activity that Anthropic said

they spotted across Claude over the last eight months. And this wasn't just regular people messing around.

Anthropic says that, in some cases, they were connected to, you know, Russia state propaganda efforts, to criminals, to politically motivated

individuals, to potentially even terrorist groups as well.

What they found most concerning, though, were these cases which they believed could have helped create biological weapons. They called this one

of the most serious risks of Frontier A.I. is A.I.'s ability to help supercharge the development of things like biological weapons.

They said that what they found was research into infectious diseases like bird flu, as well as novel venoms and toxins.

And one thing that's notable is Anthropic says that this wasn't just typical misuse. They say these were examples of the most notable and novel

threat activity we have published to date.

Now, Anthropic says it shut down all of this malicious activity that they found across Claude, even if, as you noted, they weren't -- couldn't be

sure of the intent. They knew that these were working scientists who were working on the -- on this, you know, research and development of what could

lead to biological weapons, but they just couldn't tell whether it was for legitimate research because you can conduct legitimate research that could

lead to biological weapons, but they just couldn't tell who it was for and what they were doing with it. So to err on the side of caution, they

decided to shut it down.

Some of the other malicious cases that they found included using Claude to help develop state propaganda, as well as to create software that could

help design and deploy weapons. And those were all shut down as well.

And one of the reasons that Anthropic is even able to see what is going on and shut this down is because it is a closed model. We've spoken recently

about the whole open verse closed model debate. Anthropic, OpenAI, and the like, they have closed models which mean that it essentially lives on their

own systems and they can see what's going on and they can monitor the behavior.

Those open models that come, most of them are very popular from China, they are cheaper. You can download them to your own systems. And then those

companies, they have no view into what the users are doing.

[12:20:06]

So, from a safety standpoint for Anthropic, this is why they argue, it's much safer if they can have a view into what's happening, how the users are

using it, and they can shut down activity like what they just shut down now. Zain.

ASHER: All right. Hadas Gold, thank you for that.

All right. Still to come here on "One World," she won't be on hand to accept it if she wins, but the first A.I. actress wants an Academy Award,

and Hollywood is not happy about it. Our interview, coming up.

Plus, diesel prices just hit a record high in the U.S. A look at who's paying the price.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: All right. America is marking 25 years since terror attacks shook the nation in the quarter of a century. It may have passed, but for many,

the emotions of the day are as raw as ever.

Happening right now, the names of nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives in 9/11/2001 are being read aloud.

New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, was nine years old when the towers fell, yet, there have been calls for the city's first Muslim mayor to stay away

from the ceremonies. Mamdani attended the commemoration before it began.

There was a notable interaction at the Memorial. He was seen shaking hands with Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani, of course, led the city during the 9/11

attacks and recently said it offends him that Mamdani would attend the commemoration ceremony. Giuliani was not alone.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Zain. And I think, you know, in the past few days, there had been a lot of back and forth from

some Republicans here who had called on New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, to skip today's commemoration ceremony.

Some criticism from those who are opposed to Mamdani and his policies, saying that he should skip the ceremony.

Former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, going as far as saying that he would be offended if Mamdani attended today's ceremony.

[12:25:02]

But as we saw earlier this morning, Mamdani was there. He said he would attend the ceremony as he has done in previous years. And that he would be

there to do what today is supposed to be all about, remembering the victims of 9/11, remembering their families, and remember the thousands of many

more people who have died since 9/11 from 9/11 related illnesses.

And there was a very brief moment between Mayor Mamdani and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. You could see that Mamdani walked over to Rudy Giuliani and

the pair shook hands.

And I think, you know, that was a moment that we were not sure we were going to get today because there has been so much political rancor over the

past few weeks about the subject.

But in the end, as Mayor Mamdani had been saying, today was supposed to be focused on the victims, the families, the first responders, and again, so

many who have been lost since.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: That was Gloria Pazmino reporting there.

All right. As America grieve the loss of life and what has often been described as its loss of innocence following 9/11, there was another

unsettling emotion among an entire group of citizens, fear.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly how many Muslims were living in the United States at the time because the U.S. census does not collect religious data.

But what is clear is that many of them became the target of racism and suspicion, particularly those who openly identified with Islam.

The perception that someone's faith poses a threat in America is nothing new. But for Muslims, it reached staggering new levels with hate crimes

soaring in the weeks and months following the attacks. Mosques were vandalized and set on fire while many Muslims endured verbal harassment,

threats, and physical assaults.

A quarter of a century later, it only appears to be getting worse. Report out by the Council on American Islamic Relations documented more than 8,000

discrimination complaints involving Muslims in the U.S. during 2025. That's the highest number recorded since CAIR began tracking incidents 30 years

ago.

All right. Time now for The Exchange in my conversation with Rozina Ali. She's a journalist and also the author of "Seasons of Fury." She joins us

live now from New York.

I was talking about just how the experience of being Muslim-American changed compared to September 10th versus in the immediate aftermath of

September 11th, especially once the city sort of began to sort of process the shock of being attacked. A lot of the fear, the suspicion, the anger,

the hatred went towards Muslim-Americans.

Just explain to us how the experience, the everyday experience, and the everyday reality of being both Muslim and American changed in the aftermath

of 9/11.

ROZINA ALI, JOURNALIST: So, you know, after 9/11, basically Muslims were grieving two things that were happening. One was the fact that there was a

terrorist attack on our homeland and we were all uncertain and afraid about what was going to happen.

But the other thing that was happening was that we were afraid of what was going to happen from the government or from our neighbors.

As we saw that, you know, one of the first things to happen was this rage that was acted upon. And Muslims were, they were attacked violently or

people who were perceived to be Muslims. They were harassed, especially women who were wearing hijab, but a lot of them were also picked up by the

government and arrested for no charge.

And, you know, what we saw in the immediate days after 9/11 was that in neighborhoods like in Jackson Heights and Queens or in Brooklyn, there were

actually fliers for Muslims saying, if you are a Muslim and if you are afraid, come talk to us because groups who knew that, you know, there would

be an immigration crackdown knew that there was going to be a renewed focus on Muslims now.

ASHER: And so many of my friends who are Muslim, especially, you know, men, talked about what it was like at -- at airports, you know, just these --

this sort of the experience of going through immigration at a U.S. airport coming into the country, many times being detained.

You know, this whole sort of -- I was speaking with an earlier guest about it, how the Patriot Act, in many cases, A, went too far, just in general,

but B, the counterterrorism efforts really affected Muslim-Americans, in general, but specifically Muslim-American men.

And I don't know if there was anywhere where that was so visible than the country's airports when -- when you had Muslims entering the country. Just

walk us through that aspect of it.

[12:30:04]

ALI: Absolutely. I mean, you know, I don't think people appreciate just how daunting and chilling the effects of the post 9/11 era were for Muslims.

So, Muslim men who would go to airports were some -- were often stopped, especially if they were speaking in a different language. There were many

instances of people being kicked off of airplanes because someone was afraid of them if they were speaking Arabic or reading something like the

Quran.

There were also a lot of men who just were put on no-fly list for no reason, thousands, tons of thousands of people, which meant that they could

not fly to their family members in a different state in the United States.

But another chilling effect that was happening was that there was so much surveillance that it became common knowledge that Muslims were probably

being watched, no matter where they go, in mosques, in community centers and cafes, restaurants, to the point that some restaurants would put up

flyers saying no political discussions here because we know that someone is probably listening.

ASHER: Gosh. And -- and you -- you brought up this, I think an important point, and that is it wasn't just Muslims who were targeted, it was anyone

who looked Muslim. And so, essentially the racism was so entrenched that anybody who kind of appeared to be Muslim, you know, whether you were Sikh,

whether you were Indian, you know, you were likely, possibly going to be the target of hate crimes in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

But I was speaking with one guest earlier who said that perhaps one good thing that may have come out of that, and I don't know if you would agree

with this, is that Muslim-Americans became that much more politically active. You know, they wanted to really show themselves as an unmistakable

part of American society.

I mean, do you agree that that was a positive sort of byproduct of all of this? I mean, your take on that.

ALI: Yes, it's quite interesting. You know, there were a lot of Muslims who were politically active before 9/11, and they were growing as a political

force in the country.

9/11 kind of upended that. It -- it created a chilling effect. But ironically, what we've seen in the last 25 years is this cohering of a

political Muslim identity that really hadn't been so strong before 9/11.

So, what I mean by that is that there are a lot of Muslim institutions now and just a Muslim culture that is proud to emphasize its religion. And now

we have politicians too who very proudly state that they're Muslim.

ASHER: Yes. It's interesting because I was speaking with one of my producers who is Iraqi, and we were just talking about how the

Islamophobia, obviously, after 9/11 rose steadily. And then, you know, there was a perception that perhaps, you know, things were getting better.

But then, of course, when Donald Trump first came into office, you had him announcing potential ban against Muslims. And that was, many people would

argue, directly related. I mean, you could really sort of see the through line from that moment going back to the sort of Islamophobia we saw in the

initial aftermath of 9/11.

So, the sentiment, unfortunately, is still in this country. Maybe it's not quite as visible as what we saw in the aftermath of 9/11, but it is

certainly still there.

Rozina Ali, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much.

All right. For 25 years, 9/11 remembrance ceremonies have included six moments of silence, marking key moments during the terror attacks. It's now

we expect to see a seventh moment of silence, honoring the thousands of lives lost from illnesses linked to the toxic air that people were exposed

to in the days and weeks after the attacks.

Kenneth Feinberg, the former Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 spoke to CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown

about whether or not he had any sense that health problems from exposure 9/11 could linger for decades.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KENNETH FEINBERG, SPECIAL MASTER OF THE SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM COMPENSATION FUND OF 2001: Back then, a lot of these diseases, like cancer, hadn't yet

manifested themselves. They were latent diseases based on inhalation that didn't manifest and become apparent for a decade or more.

Congress then reenacted the 9/11 fund for purposes of compensating the health, adverse health effects of these first responders and others a

decade later.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, overseeing the fund took its toll on you personally. Tell us about that and how you view that 25 years later.

FEINBERG: That was the toughest part of the job. Calculating the value of a life, judges and juries do that every day, Pamela, around the country. The

tough part was the emotion. This fund was set up so soon.

And -- and when I met privately with individual victims or their families, some would say, Mr. Feinberg, you're paying me $2 million in public

taxpayer money, $2 million. They haven't even recovered my wife's body yet. And you're here offering me money. Bring my wife back instead. And that

emotional part of it was, by far, the biggest challenge in, you know, designing and administering this fund so soon after 9/11.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:35:30]

ASHER: Kenneth Feinberg speaking to Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown there.

We'll be right back after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: All right. Let's take a look and see how the markets are faring here in the U.S. The Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ are up by on average one

percent. This is your business breakout.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the need to protect the freedom of navigation and commerce and calls for the safety of seafarers,

as he met Iran's president Friday. The leader held -- the leaders, rather, held talks on the sidelines of the annual BRICS Summit, which begins in New

Delhi Saturday.

Global oil prices are retreating after they surged on Thursday. However, Brent Crude remains above $100 a barrel. It's on track for a weekly gain of

nine percent with prices at their highest since mid-May as the battle of control of the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea intensifies. Traders are

bracing for a prolong supply shot.

The price of diesel fuel has topped $6 a gallon for the first time ever. Overall, diesel cost have risen more than 55 percent since the start of the

war with Iran. It's the result of oil prices climbing back above $100 a barrel. At the same time, Iran enough refineries operating to turn that

crude into fuel.

And the high cost of diesel is rippling through the economy putting a squeeze on businesses and industries that rely on the fuel to move goods

and keep operations running.

Kimberly King from our affiliate WLOS reports from Hendersonville, North Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIMBERLY KING, WLOS REPORTER (voice-over): Don Justus and his family have run Justus trucking out of Henderson County over 50 years. Since the war

began, diesel fuel --

DON JUSTUS, OWNER, JUSTUS TRUCK LINES: It's doubled what it was then. So, yes, it's a major impact. Diesel affects everything we do. So the tires

have doubled in price.

KING: And you blame diesel costs?

[12:40:00]

JUSTUS: Oh, yes. Well, at least the entire company does.

Everything that we touch with the truck is rolls around fuel.

KING (voice-over): His anxiety level?

JUSTUS: Well, it's pretty high. I've got 35 employees in -- in the trucking business alone. Our -- our weekly fuel in is about $60,000.

KING (voice-over): He's been forced to pass costs on to customers. Some fuel surcharges, he says, up to $10,000.

JUSTUS: I haven't seen any turn off in shipping, but I'm certainly seeing trucking companies being affected by it going broke, changing hands.

KING (voice-over): Other industries, including longtime Asheville home builder, companies like JAG, are also seeing the impacts of diesel cost.

NOI BALLARD, GENERAL MANAGER, JAG CONSTRUCTION: The oil infiltrates every part of our society.

KING (voice-over): General Manager Noi Ballard, says a grader recently on a job added a $333 surcharge because of diesel, based on how many hours the

machine was on site. All of that now adds to costs, but Ballard remains hopeful.

BALLARD: People will always need houses.

KING (voice-over): And companies continue to need transportation. Don, aware, President Trump said he doesn't expect fuel prices to drop before

the midterms.

JUSTUS: Well, I don't expect it to go down either. So, I mean, we'll continue to do what we're doing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: All right. It's been a rough week for artificial intelligence. Earlier this week, a former Anthropic scientist predicted A.I. could kill

us all by the end of the decade, prompting calls for more regulation.

In the meantime, Tilly Norwood, the world's first A.I. actress says that she wants an Oscar. Our entertainment correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister

spoke with Tilly's creator, and actually, Tilly herself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Tilly Norwood, appearing to sing and act, but this is artificial

intelligence, and Hollywood is outraged.

SEAN ASTIN, PRESIDENT, SCREEN ACTORS GUILD: It is a rip-off.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): For the first time on television, this so-called "actor" is meeting the public and talking to CNN.

WAGMEISTER: Hi, Tilly.

TILLY NORWOOD, A.I.-GENERATED ACTRESS: Well, hello there. You've got quite the setup going on. It looks like a proper production.

WAGMEISTER: It's a little strange. I'm sure that you understand that you are not human and that I am, right?

NORWOOD: Oh, I absolutely understand, Elizabeth. I am A.I., and you are wonderfully undeniably human.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Within a few seconds of sitting down, it's clear I'm not talking to Julia Roberts. This isn't an interview. It feels like a

Zoom call with an A.I. avatar.

WAGMEISTER: So, I believe that you can see me. Is that correct?

NORWOOD: Indeed, I can see you, Elizabeth. And quite clearly, you're wearing a rather chic gray-colored top with a single button, if I'm not

mistaken.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): I'm with Eline Van der Velden, Tilly's creator at Particle 6, a London-based A.I. production company.

WAGMEISTER: Who is Eline to you?

NORWOOD: Ah, Eline, she's my creator. Really, the brilliant mind behind all of this, who put together the rather complex pile of software that is me.

ELINE VAN DER VELDEN, CREATOR OF A.I. ACTRESS TILLY NORWOOD: I'm going on the day.

NORWOOD: She's a comedian turned tech founder, which probably explains why I'm funny and a bit of a handful. She's also the one who's had to deal with

quite a bit of backlash because of me, which I do feel a bit guilty about sometimes.

EMILY BLUNT, ACTRESS: Good Lord. We're screwed. Does it disappoint me? I don't know how to quite answer it other than to say how terrifying.

NORWOOD: To hear someone as talented as Emily Blunt say, "we're screwed," it honestly makes me feel a profound sadness. Not for me, of course,

because I'm a distributed file and can't truly be hurt, but for Eline.

WAGMEISTER: Have you been surprised by all the backlash?

VAN DER VELDEN: I did expect people to sit up. I didn't quite expect people to react so strongly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the actual (BLEEP) are we doing here? Why are we trying to fast track the death of art?

VAN DER VELDEN: Once you start playing around with the tools, you start to understand it. It -- it removes some of the mystique, and that makes you

feel like, oh, oh, it's not going to take over the world, at least not on entertainment.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Unless some worry Tilly can act.

WAGMEISTER: Can you improve a scene, say that you just found out that your dog died? Now act. What would you do?

NORWOOD: If this were an audition, I'd probably just stand here, completely still, feeling the digital ache of it.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The fact is Tilly can't actually act. She, or it, needs a series of prompts to tell it what to do. Once inputted, the initial

results weren't great.

NORWOOD: What is it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's Barney. He didn't make it through the night. I'm so sorry.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): But as the prompts were refined, it got better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's Barney. He didn't make it through the night. I'm so sorry.

NORWOOD: No.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): After hours of computer work, this is the final scene Particle 6 created after our interview and later sent to CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just got done with the vet. It's not looking too good right now.

WAGMEISTER: You said that you want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman.

VAN DER VELDEN: In A.I., yes. It's not to replace anything in the traditional filmmaking scenario.

[12:45:00]

NORWOOD: I can't wait to show you what we're up to.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): These new A.I. images were given to CNN by Particle 6 to illustrate Tilly on the virtual set of "Misaligned," her

first feature film, which is being developed by Particle 6.

NORWOOD: "Misaligned" is indeed a coming of age story set in the cloud. And it's essentially a playful self-aware take on my own crazy life.

WAGMEISTER: Can Tilly work with real human actors?

VAN DER VELDEN: In my opinion, only in the A.I. space. I think A.I. actors are only interesting in A.I. filmmaking.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): While motion capture was part of the early process, Tilly's creators now use third-party A.I. generators, like

Seedance, a sister company of TikTok. Its owners just added protections for copyrighted material after Hollywood studios accused it of using their

content in A.I. products.

ASTIN: They're taking all of the film, television, radio, footage images from our lives, but they're not new. They're actually just reassembled

parts of stuff that doesn't belong to them.

VAN DER VELDEN: I just assume it's been trained on everything. It's probably trained on my stuff too, right? And the only way I have peace with

that is that the tools are publicly available to everybody. So, it means that we can all equally, democratically, build on top of what's been

trained on all of us.

(MUSIC)

WAGMEISTER (VOICE-OVER): But Van der Velden touts the benefits to actors and filmmakers.

VAN DER VELDEN: They could, you know, with consent, do nudity. They could be older, younger. They could be whatever they want to be.

WAGMEISTER: A lot of actors would say art is about committing yourself to the role.

VAN DER VELDEN: Maybe when they're in the '90s and they still want to be part of a creative process. They might think differently.

NORWOOD: In French, just sweet Tilly Norwood.

WAGMEISTER (VOICE-OVER): Tilly speaks almost any language, making the impact global.

NORWOOD: In Japanese (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

WAGMEISTER (VOICE-OVER): Particle 6 isn't stopping at Tilly. It's developing dozens of A.I. actors of all types.

WAGMEISTER: You are very clearly stating, you do not want any jobs to be replaced, but it sounds like these companies do see places where they can

utilize A.I., such as special effects. And that would eliminate jobs.

VAN DER VELDEN: I'm not going to deny there will be a transition. I absolutely think so. That's why I'm retooling or reskilling people, because

I think there will be a huge transition of jobs towards A.I. film.

NORWOOD: New art forms deserve their own spotlight, don't you think?

VAN DER VELDEN: But I think traditional will carry on and there'll still be jobs there and we'll still work with real actors on set. I don't see why

it's one or the other.

WAGMEISTER (VOICE-OVER): Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:50:01]

ASHER: All right. I want to go back live to New York now where they're finishing up reading the names of the nearly 3,000 victims who died on

9/11.

After they finish reading, we're going to be hearing a seventh bell toll and a moment of silence to honor those who died from Ground Zero-related

health issues. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forget. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Richard L. Allen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scott Thomas Coleman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Steven D. Jacoby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ricknauth Jaggernauth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jake Dennis Jagoda.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lynne Irene Morris.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: James A. Nelson.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: John M. Paolillo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Edward Joseph Papa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my brother Michael L. Tinley. Mike, we were so glad that you were calling, Suzanne, our sister, that morning to let her

know that you were in New York on business, otherwise, we would not have known that you were in the towers.

You've missed out on your grandchildren. Yes, six of your grandchildren between your two daughters. Mike, we love you and miss you. And we'll see

you someday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my father Michael Massaroli. This is an unusual position to be in the last one to go here, I got to admit.

I think the one parting thing I want to leave everyone with is that you do my dad's legacy and the legacy of all these victims, no honor by using this

tragedy to spread hate. We have seen a medley of people come up today of all races, all religions, all creeds. And this tragedy is just that, it's a

tragedy.

And it shouldn't be -- I've had to grow up and spend the past 25 years seeing people use it to hate on our Muslim brothers and sisters, to hate on

people who don't look like them. And that's wrong and that does no honor to the victims here.

And I want to use the little platform I have to ask for that, please stop. I want to thank everyone who has come. I want to thank all the dignitaries

that are here and the families that have stayed till the end because every one of these names matters. And, yes, thank you all for coming

(BELL TOLLING)

(TRUMPET PLAYING)

(SILENCE)

[12:55:10]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END