By Daybreak Chmielewski and Anna Tong
Scarlett Johansson on Monday accused OpenAI of making a voice for the ChatGPT system that sounded “eerily comparable” to the actress after she declined to voice the chatbot herself.
Johansson made the feedback in a press release launched hours after the factitious intelligence firm mentioned it was taking down the voice, known as ‘Sky.’
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned in a press release emailed to Reuters on Monday that Sky’s voice was not an imitation of Johansson, however belonged to a unique skilled actress.
“The voice of Sky isn’t Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was by no means meant to resemble hers. We solid the voice actor behind Sky’s voice earlier than any outreach to Ms. Johansson,” Altman mentioned.
“Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we now have paused utilizing Sky’s voice in our merchandise. We’re sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t talk higher.”
The struggle over rights to actors’ voices and pictures has develop into a spotlight in Hollywood as studios take into account find out how to use AI to create new leisure and because the computer-produced photographs and sounds develop into troublesome to differentiate from these of people.
Johansson within the assertion mentioned Altman had approached her final September and supplied to rent her to voice a ChatGPT voice — a proposal she declined.
“9 months later, my mates, household and most of the people all famous how a lot the most recent system named ‘Sky’ gave the impression of me,” she mentioned.
“Once I heard the launched demo, I used to be shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily much like mine that my closest mates and information retailers couldn’t inform the distinction.”
Johansson added that Altman had “insinuated that the similarity was intentional” by tweeting a reference to “her,” the 2013 film a couple of man who develops a relationship with an AI assistant voiced by the actress.
Johansson’s observe was printed by journalists from NPR and different information retailers. Her publicist additionally shared it with Reuters.
OpenAI didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark after Johansson’s assertion. She mentioned that she had employed authorized counsel to ask concerning the course of of making the voice.
OpenAI confirmed off its latest AI mannequin, known as GPT-4o, final week, with audio capabilities that allow customers converse to the chatbot and procure real-time responses, marking a big development in additional real looking sounding AI conversations.
