Scarlett Johansson reacts to OpenAI's use of voice that sounded similar to her
Scarlett Johansson is "shocked, angered, and in disbelief" at a synthetic voice from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI that sounded similar to hers after she turned down their offer to lend her voice to the system.
In case you missed it, the technology company recently made rounds after one of the new voices in its new GPT-4o chatbot, which they named Sky, was allegedly created to sound like Johansson. They have since been working on temporarily muting the voice while clearing up the issue.
In a statement sent to Variety, the actress revealed that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wanted to hire her to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system back in September.
"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 Al," Johansson wrote.
While Altman told her that her voice would be "comforting to people," she ultimately declined the offer after much consideration and for personal reasons.
Despite this, she was informed by her friends, family, and the general public on how the newest system Sky sounded like 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," Johansson remarked.
She then pointed out Altman's recent post on X where he wrote the word "her," which Johansson said was a reference to one of her films of the same name. In it, she voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human.
The former Marvel star then disclosed that Altman had contacted her agent to ask if she could reconsider the offer two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released.
"Before we could connect, the system was out there. As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAl, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the 'Sky' voice," Johansson wrote.
"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 stressed.
She ended her statement by expressing her hope in resolving the issue as well as having legislation in the future that will "help ensure that individual rights are protected."
In response to the issue, OpenAI asserted in a blog post that the "Sky" voice was based on the natural speaking voice of a different professional actress.
"We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice," the artificial intelligence powerhouse said in the post.
Sky first became the focus of attention last week when OpenAI released a higher-performing and even more humanlike "GPT-4o" version of the artificial intelligence technology that underpins ChatGPT.