Scarlett Johansson is taking legal action against OpenAI after the new ChatGPT 4.0 voice “Sky” sounded eerily like hers. The situation gets worse, with Johansson putting out a statement saying OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tried to convince her twice to voice the system over the past nine months.
It wasn’t just Johansson who noticed the similarity — her friends and family noticed the likeness, with the actor saying she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief”. It kickstarts a conversation about ethics when it comes to AI and deepfakes, with new technology being a big concern when the Hollywood writers were on strike last year.
To get you up to speed, I’ve put together a handy explainer about everything that’s gone down between OpenAI and ScarJo recently.
One of the latest ChatGPT voices sounds eerily similar to Scarlett Johansson’s voice. (Image: Getty)
Sam Altman approaches Scarlett Johansson to voice ChatGPT 4.0 in September
In September, Altman asked Johansson to be the new voice of the ChatGPT 4.0 system. In a statement her publicist gave to NPR, she explained the proposal.
“[Altman] told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people,” she recalled.
After considering his offer, Johansson declined due to personal reasons.
Sam Altman asks Scarlett Johansson to reconsider in early May
Two days before releasing the ChatGPT 4.0 demo, Altman contacted Johansson’s agent again, asking her to “reconsider”. However, the demo was launched before Johansson and her team were able to respond.
OpenAI releases ChatGpt 4.0 demo
OpenAI shared a live demo of the new voice “Sky” last week, with people commenting on how similar it sounded to Johansson’s AI character Samantha in the Spike Jonze film Her.
Altman appeared to confirm the voice was based on Johansson’s voice character, posting “her” on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Sam Altman’s love of Scarlet Johansson’s film Her
Altman has previously declared his love for the sci-fi film Her, where Johansson voices an AI virtual assistant. In an interview at the Dreamforce 2023 conference last year, he explained why he loved it so much.
“The number of things that I think that Her got right, that were not obvious at the time — like the whole interaction model with how humans are gonna use an AI, this idea that it is gonna be this, like, conversational language interface — that was incredibly prophetic, And certainly more than a little bit, inspired us,” he said.
Spike Jonze’s film Her depicts a man in a romantic relationship with an AI assistant. (Image: Warner Bros)
Scarlett Johansson takes legal action against Sam Altman and OpenAI
After hearing the voice of “Sky”, Johansson says she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief” that Altman pursued “a voice that sounded so eerily similar” to hers.
“My closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference. Mr Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word ‘her’ – a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human,” she told NPR.
“As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr Altman and OpenAI, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the ‘Sky’ voice. Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the ‘Sky’ voice.”
She continued: “In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity.”
Sam Altman and OpenAI have come under fire for their decision. (Image: Getty)
OpenAI removes “Sky” voice from ChatGPT temporarily but defends their decision
On May 20, after complaints and legal action from Johansson, OpenAI announced on X that “Sky” would no longer be available.
“We’ve heard questions about how we chose the voices in ChatGPT, especially Sky. We are working to pause the use of Sky while we address them,” the company wrote.
The company shared a link that defended their casting decisions for the five new ChatGPT voices – Breeze, Cove, Ember and Sky – claiming they picked talent from over 400 submissions.
“We support the creative community and worked closely with the voice acting industry to ensure we took the right steps to cast ChatGPT’s voices. Each actor receives compensation above top-of-market rates, and this will continue for as long as their voices are used in our products,” their statement read.
“We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice – Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice. To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents.”
This saga has opened up a whole can of worms, and it looks like it’s only going to get messier. If ScarJo doesn’t wanna be a voice, Altman can give PEDESTRIAN.TV a buzz if he wants a nasally Australian TBH.
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