Scarlett Johansson Said She Was “Forced To Hire Legal Action” After Being Left “Shocked” By OpenAI Employing A Voice “Eerily Similar” To Hers Without Her Permission
Scarlett Johansson has revealed she’s “angered” and “shocked” by OpenAI reportedly using a voice “eerily similar” to hers without her permission.
For those who don’t know, OpenAI is the artificial intelligence research company behind the popular service ChatGPT. In 2023, ChatGPT launched its “voice mode” function, which features a tool that can read text aloud in multiple voices. One of these voices is called “Sky,” and Scarlett now claims it is incredibly similar to her own.
In a statement to People this week, Scarlett claimed that she received — and declined — an offer from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to use her voice within its current ChatGPT system.
“He 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,” Scarlett claimed.
Scarlett purportedly told People that she declined the offer from Altman due to “personal reasons.” However, months later, she was shocked to hear that Sky's voice sounded “eerily similar” to hers.
“Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me,” she said, noting that she was left “shocked, angered and in disbelief.”
She went on to claim that Altman had “insinuated” that the similarity between Sky’s voice and her own was “intentional” when he tweeted the word “her” earlier this month — an apparent reference to the 2013 film Her, in which Scarlett voiced a virtual chat system that winds up forming a relationship with a human being.
her
— Sam Altman (@sama) May 13, 2024
Scarlett also alleged that just two days before the new ChatGPT demo was released, Altman contacted her agent again, asking if she wanted to “reconsider” her decision. She then said, “Before we could connect, the system was out there,” adding that she was “forced to hire legal action.”
Scarlett 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. I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”
At present, OpenAI has publicly acknowledged the controversy over Sky’s voice, revealing this week that it has suspended its use while the matter is addressed. “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,” they tweeted.
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