MCU star Scarlett Johansson said she felt ‘angered and shocked’ after tech major Open AI allegedly used a synthetic voice released with an update to ChatGPT “so eerily similar” to hers.
Open AI said it is pausing the update after comparisons were drawn with a fictional voice assistant portrayed in the film “Her” by Johansson.
Open AI posted on X: “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.”
Scarlett Johansson claimed Open AI chief Altman had proposed to hire her last September to voice the ChatGPT 4.0 system.
She said she rejected the offer due to ‘personal reasons’.
“Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was out there,” she said in a statement as quoted by CNN.
Johansson said she hired legal counsel, and said OpenAI “reluctantly agreed” to take down the “Sky” voice after her counsel sent Altman two letters.
“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,” Johansson wrote.
Open AI earlier said the voice in question was not derived from the Hollywood actor but it belongs to a different ‘professional actress’.
“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,” the company said in a blog post.
