Scarlett Johansson is hitting back at OpenAI, claiming that the company has used her voice to create one of its “Voice Mode” options even after she declined a collaboration offer from the company’s CEO Sam Altman.
In a statement shared on Monday, Johansson explained that Altman sought to “hire” her “to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system,” and tried to convince her to accept a collaboration by saying that she “could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI.”
Johansson, however, declined the offer. When a new voice option named “Sky” dropped recently, though — heavily resembling Johansson’s cadence and delivery — it appeared as if OpenAI went ahead and used her voice as a model anyways. Supporting that argument is the fact that Johansson voiced the chatbot in the movie, Her, and as the “Sky” voice was being demoed, Altman tweeted “her.”
Now, Johansson has hired legal counsel and is asking OpenAI “to detail the exact process by which they created the ‘Sky’ voice.” After two letters were sent (one to OpenAI and one to Altman), “OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the ‘Sky’ voice.”
Concluding, Johansson’s statement reads, “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.” Read Johansson’s full statement below.
Altman denied that “Sky” is modeled after Johansson’s voice, saying in a statement: “The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. 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.”
Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI situation. Wow: pic.twitter.com/8ibMeLfqP8
— Bobby Allyn (@BobbyAllyn) May 20, 2024
her
— Sam Altman (@sama) May 13, 2024