Whoopi Goldberg is once again sounding the alarm on technology, this time setting her sights on AI actress Tilly Norwood. After joking about battling a virtual reality headset and calling Amazon Alexa a threat in her own home, The View moderator announced Monday that Norwood had officially made it onto what she calls her “War Room” terror watchlist.
Goldberg opened up on The View about the controversy surrounding Norwood, an AI-generated performer whose recent rise has sparked outrage in Hollywood.
Reports that industry agencies were considering signing Norwood prompted human actors to call for boycotts. Studios have defended the AI character, insisting Tilly isn’t a replacement for real people but “a creative work” that belongs to its own genre.
“After many human actors called for a boycott against agencies who sign AI actors, the studio claims Tilly is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work, and AI characters should be judged as part of their own genre, rather than compared directly with human actors,” Goldberg said on the show, delivering the line with a hint of sarcasm. Conservative cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin picked the topic specifically to hear Goldberg’s take, and the panel let her speak uninterrupted.
Goldberg didn’t hold back. “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,” she said. “It’s got Bette Davis’ attitude, it’s got Humphrey Bogart’s lips,” she added, while Griffin chimed in that it even has Goldberg’s humor.
“It’s got my humor, thank you, darling,” Goldberg shot back. “And so it’s a little bit of an unfair advantage. You know what? Bring it on. You can always tell them from us. We move differently, our faces move differently, our bodies move differently.”
Goldberg, now 69, said she expects the technology could be “seamless” in two or three years, but stressed that it isn’t there yet. She went on to warn about the larger impact of AI beyond entertainment. “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,” she said.
“Some industries are using AI now. People talk about how 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.”
Before a commercial break, Goldberg lightened the mood with a risqué joke about phones that left the audience laughing.
Meanwhile, Norwood’s creator, Eline Van Der Velden, defended the project, saying, “Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.”
Van Der Velden added, “I see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool. Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting.”
Goldberg has long been skeptical of tech like Alexa and AI, once telling her audience, “You know she is listening. I don’t want her in the house… When you watch science fiction, it’s right there. They tell you: This is the future.”