Scarlett Johansson says OpenAI copied her voice after she declined ChatGPT offer: 'I was shocked'

The "Her" actress maintains that she was "forced to hire legal counsel" to address an AI soundalike.

Scarlett Johansson is using her voice to fight… for her voice.

On Monday the Her actress accused the tech company OpenAI of featuring a voice "eerily similar" to her own in the latest version of its ChatGPT bot after Johansson expressly declined to lend her voice to the system, leaving her "shocked" and "forced to hire legal counsel" to address the situation.

OpenAI denies that the voice in question, named Sky, was intended to resemble Johansson.

Johansson said in a statement provided to Entertainment Weekly that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman contacted her in September and asked her to voice ChatGPT 4.0 because he felt her voice would be "comforting to people." Citing personal reasons, she declined.

"Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named 'Sky' sounded like me," said Johansson, who famously voiced an AI assistant in the 2013 movie Her. "When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference."

Related: OpenAI pulls ChatGPT voice that sounds like Scarlett Johansson amid controversy

Johansson's statement came hours after OpenAI announced that it was pausing the use of Sky while the company addressed questions surrounding the software. "We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice," the company said, adding that Sky "is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice." The company said it couldn't share the names of voice talent, citing privacy concerns.

Johansson also pointed out that Altman tweeted the word "her" when the ChatGPT voice demos debuted last week, suggesting a link between Her and Sky. "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," Johansson said. (Altman has previously cited Her as one of his favorite films.)

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Johansson went on to allege that two days before the ChatGPT demo was released, Altman contacted her agent again, asking if she would reconsider the offer. Before she could respond, she said, Sky was out in the world. "As a result of their actions," Johansson said, "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."

Related: ChatGPT launching talking AI that sounds exactly like Scarlett Johansson in Her — on purpose?

Concluding her statement, Johansson called for new laws to address issues of AI technology and individual rights. "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," she said. "I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected."

Reached for comment on Johansson's remarks Monday evening, Altman reiterated to EW, "The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky's voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky's voice in our products." He added, "We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn't communicate better."

On Tuesday, Johansson's call for individual protections against companies developing AI products was echoed in a statement of support from SAG-AFTRA, the labor union representing thousands of actors and performers.

"We thank Ms. Johansson for speaking out on this issue of crucial importance to all SAG-AFTRA members," a spokesperson said. "We share in her concerns and fully support her right to have clarity and transparency regarding the voice used in developing the Chat GPT-4o appliance 'Sky.'"

The statement continued, "SAG-AFTRA members are among the most talented and often most recognizable people on the planet. That is why we're strongly championing federal legislation that would protect their voices and likenesses — and everyone else's as well — from unauthorized digital replication."

The use of AI in the entertainment industry was a divisive topic as the union negotiated with Hollywood studios during its lengthy 2023 strike. SAG-AFTRA's statement Tuesday concluded, "We are pleased that Open AI has responded to these concerns and paused their use of 'Sky,' and we look forward to working with them and other industry stakeholders to enshrine transparent and resilient protections for all of us."

Additional reporting by Dustin Nelson.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.