Research organization OpenAI has paused the use of its Sky voice after being contacted by lawyers for Scarlett Johansson.
The actress said she was forced to hire legal counsel after hearing a demo that was “eerily similar” to her own voice.
Johansson claimed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had initially approached her to voice the ChatGPT 4.0 system in September of last year.
“He told me … I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI,” she wrote in a statement released on Monday evening. “He said he felt that my voice would be comforting for people.”
The Her actress said she ultimately declined the offer “after much consideration and for personal reasons.” However, after the new Sky system launched, “my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system … sounded like me,” she said.
“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,” she continued. “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.”
The actress further claims Altman contacted her agent two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released to ask her to reconsider.
After Johansson’s legal representatives wrote two letters asking Altman to detail the exact process that led to the creation of Sky’s voice, OpenAI agreed to take it down. Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI situation. Wow: pic.twitter.com/8ibMeLfqP8
— Bobby Allyn (@BobbyAllyn) May 20, 2024
“OpenAI had moved to debunk the internet’s theories about Johansson in a blog post accompanying its earlier announcement aimed at detailing how ChatGPT’s voices were chosen,” AP News reports. "The company wrote that it believed AI voices ‘should not deliberately mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice’ and that the voice of Sky belongs to a ‘different professional actress.’ But it added that it could not share the name of that professional for privacy reasons.”
In a statement to the outlet, Altman said the actor behind Sky’s voice was cast “before any outreach” to Johansson.
“The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers,” Altman said. “Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”
On Tuesday, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) threw support behind Johansson.
"We thank Ms. Johansson for speaking out on this issue of crucial importance to all SAG-AFTRA members. We share in her concerns and fully support her right to have clarity and transparency regarding the voice used," a spokesperson for the union said, per Reuters.
“SAG-AFTRA, which represents about 160,000 entertainment and media professionals globally, played a big role in securing agreements from Hollywood studios for better pay and protections against the use of AI for actors,” the outlet reports. “The dispute over the rights to actors' voices and images has become a focal point in Hollywood as studios evaluate AI's potential for creating new entertainment. The issue is particularly relevant as computer-generated images and sounds become increasingly indistinguishable from human ones.”
“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,” Johansson added in her statement. “I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”
