Scarlett Johansson on Monday accused OpenAI of creating a voice for the ChatGPT system that sounded “eerily similar” to the actress after she herself refused to voice the chatbot.
Johansson made the comments in a statement released hours after the artificial intelligence company said it was removing the voice called ‘Sky’.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Monday that Sky’s voice was not an imitation of Johansson’s, but belonged to another professional actress.
“Sky’s voice is not Scarlett Johansson’s and was never intended to sound like hers. We cast the actor behind Sky’s voice before any contact with Ms. Johansson,” Altman said.
“Out of respect for Ms Johansson, we have paused the use of Sky’s voice in our products. We apologize to Ms Johansson for not communicating better.”
The fight over the rights to actors’ voices and images has become a focus in Hollywood as studios consider how to use artificial intelligence to create new entertainment and as computer-generated images and sounds become difficult to distinguish from human ones.
Johansson said in a statement that Altman approached her last September and offered to hire her to voice ChatGPT — which she declined.
“Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public have noticed how much the latest system called ‘Sky’ sounds like me,” she said.
“When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angry and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would go for a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets couldn’t tell the difference.”
Johansson added that Altman “insinuated the resemblance was intentional” by tweeting a reference to “her,” the 2013 film about a man who develops a relationship with an AI assistant voiced by the actress.
Johansson’s note was published by reporters from NPR and other news outlets. Her publicist also shared this with Reuters.
She said she has hired legal counsel to inquire about the process of creating a voice.
Last week, OpenAI showed off its latest AI model, called GPT-4o, with audio capabilities that let users talk to the chatbot and get real-time responses, marking a significant advance in more realistic-sounding AI conversations.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
