By Daybreak Chmielewski and Anna Tong
Scarlett Johansson on Monday accused OpenAI of making a voice for the ChatGPT system that sounded “eerily similar” to the actress after she declined to voice the chatbot herself.
Johansson made the feedback in a press release launched hours after the unreal 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 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,” Altman mentioned.
“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.”
The struggle over rights to actors’ voices and pictures has grow to be a spotlight in Hollywood as studios think about how one can use AI to create new leisure and because the computer-produced pictures and sounds grow to be tough to tell apart from these of people.
Johansson within the assertion mentioned Altman had approached her final September and provided to rent her to voice a ChatGPT voice — a suggestion she declined.
“Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me,” she mentioned.
“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.”
Johansson added that Altman had “insinuated that the similarity was intentional” by tweeting a reference to “her,” the 2013 film a few man who develops a relationship with an AI assistant voiced by the actress.
Johansson’s observe was revealed by journalists from NPR and different information retailers. Her publicist additionally shared it with Reuters.
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 lifelike sounding AI conversations.
(This story has been refiled to take away an earlier reference to OpenAI not instantly offering remark in paragraph 12)