The View's Sunny Hostin Slammed by Critics for Signing Away Her Likeness to AI Company After Whoopi Goldberg Denounced the Technology: 'Disappointing'

The View's Sunny Hostin is under fire after announcing she signed a deal with the AI-backed company Fountain 0 to license her image for future projects.

The TV star is "the first major personality to agree to develop and produce one or more films, and license her image and likeness for purposes of those films to the leading AI film and TV studio," the brand announced on Thursday, August 27.

Fountain 0 said they work with a "virtual production studio" that's "capable of reducing production costs to nominal levels while achieving the highest of quality productions."

The mother-of-two raved she's thrilled to be a part of the venture, which she said will "enable writers and directors to have their imaginations unleashed and no longer be tethered to budgetary constraints."

The announcement came as a surprise, especially since many of her costars on The View have lamented the idea of embracing AI.

On social media, Hostin was ripped apart, with one critic writing, "How can someone so smart be so f------ stupid?"

"So disappointing," said someone else. "Real creatives CREATE; they don’t cede their creativity to robots."

"We have actors and writers fighting to protect their work, their faces and their voices from being replaced by AI, but not Sunny. She doesn't care," a fourth penned.

Others guessed she made the deal because they offered her a nice paycheck.

Last year, Hostin's costar Whoopi Goldberg expressed her distaste when the first AI actress, Tilly Norwood, was announced.

"The problem with this, in my humble opinion, is that you are suddenly up against something that's been generated with 5,000 other actors. It's got Bette Davis' attitude, it's got Humphrey Bogart's lips... And so it's a little bit of an unfair advantage," she explained.

"Hopefully, we'll be able to hold on because what this means is AI in the workplace — not just my workplace, but in every industry," the EGOT winner, 70, noted. "Some industries are using AI now. People talk about people are so lonely they don't have a connection, if you stick with this, with AI, you won't have any connection to anything but your phone."

Nonetheless, the former prosecutor, 57, is planning to turn her novels into TV and movies with the AI company.

"This entire generational innovation in filmmaking from Fountain 0 gives me confidence that AI can give me a way to both more fully develop, and more fully immerse myself in, IP I have developed," she shared. "I feel particularly strongly that there is a need to bring stories to the big screen that are more in tune with the lives of diverse audiences that Hollywood focuses too little on, and I believe Fountain 0’s AI productions can have a major impact on responding to the interests of these underserved audiences."