Joy Behar clashed with her The View co-host Sunny Hostin on Friday, accusing her of helping put "real people" out of jobs after Hostin revealed she had licensed her name and image to an artificial intelligence studio.
Behar, 83, the longest-serving host on the daytime talk show, pressed Hostin, 57, a lawyer, author and ABC legal analyst, to explain her decision to sign with the AI startup Fountain 0, according to footage released by ABC on Instagram.
"I recently partnered with a company called Fountain 0. They had a movie released at the Tribeca Film Festival. It's the first time that was done," Hostin said.
Hostin was referring to Dream of Violets, directed by Ash Koosha, a film with no human stars. Its actors, sets and cameras were all replaced by artificial intelligence models.
Why Hostin signed with Fountain 0
"One of the other reasons why I partnered with this company is because I've written a trilogy and for six years I've tried to get my stories made into a series or films," Hostin continued.
Hostin has written several New York Times bestselling books, including Summer on the Bluffs, Summer on Sag Harbor and Summer on Highland Beach.
"The gatekeeping in Hollywood around black and brown creative content is insane. I cannot get New York Times bestselling books onto the screen to tell diverse stories to diverse communities," Hostin said.
"So you're a robot now?"
Behar asked what that had to do with AI. Hostin replied that AI cuts out the gatekeeping, letting her make her own film and choose her own director.
Fellow co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin interrupted to ask whether the film had actors. Hostin said no, they were generated, and that she herself might appear in AI form in the finished product, since she had licensed her image to the company.
"So you're a robot now?" Behar asked.
Hostin held her ground. "I may appear but in all seriousness it's a way to go to a streamer and say here's the product, will you license it, will you show it? It's a way, I think, to get black and brown stories told. There are a lot of hidden figures out there. Those stories are not being told," she said.
"Those people are in fact robots. How does that help the black community? Because the real people are not working," Behar shot back.
"The stories are being told, Joy, because the real people in Hollywood are not working," Hostin reasoned. She added that the technology was here to stay: "The train has left the station, it's something that's here and it's not going away. There are going to be enormous benefits but of course there's going to be..."
Behar cut in to ask whether there were ethical issues in signing the deal. "I thought about that a lot," Hostin admitted.
"But she needs the project," Behar said, pointing at Hostin. "I don't need the project. I think diverse stories need to be told," Hostin countered.
Behar pressed on: "I get that. We've said that already. I'm saying those same people you're now worried about are now out of work, the writers, the directors, the actors..."
"But I'm not the person putting them out of work because the studios just won't make these projects," Hostin said.
The Fountain 0 deal
Hostin signed her licensing deal with Fountain 0 on August 27. "To be able to bring my novels to life in movie and TV form, and actually have my image inserted in the productions, so that audiences can relate to me through my stories beyond my role as an author, is incredibly exciting to me," she said in a statement at the time, according to Variety.
"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, [intellectual property] I have developed," she added.
Hostin has two children, Gabriel and Paloma, with her husband, orthopedic surgeon Emmanuel Hostin. She launched her own company, Roots & Wings Productions, in May 2021 and has yet to release a project, though she has several in development.
