The Artificial Intelligence giant, OpenAI is in beef with the renowned American actress Scarlett Johansson with a crucial matter circling ChatGPT’s voice assistant which has been available with ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Pro subscriptions since September 2023.
The actress lately claimed that one of the voices used in ChatGPT voice assistant called ‘Sky’ uses her voice.
After the live demonstration of ChatGPT-4o last week which depicts the voice behind Sky, many observers compared the voice with Johansson’s voice in the 2013 movie ‘Her’, a sci-fi film in which a man falls in love with the female voice assistant ‘Samantha’ of his computer’s operating system.
Interestingly, on May 13, the announcement day of ChatGPT-4o, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made a post on social media platform X that said ‘Her’ which quickly spiked the debate around the subject.
her
— Sam Altman (@sama) May 13, 2024
As per the reports, Johansson’s publicist ‘Marcel Pariseau’ shared a statement from the actress with NPR that says, the actress’s legal team has sent two letters to OpenAI – asking the company to detail how they developed Sky.
“As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the “Sky” voice. Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down “Sky” voice.” said Johansson
OpenAI denied the allegation in a statement published on the OpenAI website in which Sam Altman said,
“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.” said Altman
Sharing the statement on X, Open AI announced that the company has paused the ‘Sky’ voice till the issue gets resolved.
“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.”
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.
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 20, 2024
Read more about how we chose these voices: https://t.co/R8wwZjU36L
The company said that since the launch of voice capabilities in ChatGPT, back in September 2023, users have responded positively to the individual voices used in the feature named: Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper, and Sky which are sampled from individual actors that the company has partnered with.
“We support the creative community and worked closely with the voice acting industry to ensure we took the right steps to cast ChatGPT’s voices. Each actor receives compensation above top-of-market rates, and this will continue for as long as their voices are used in our products.” said Open AI in the statement
“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.” OpenAI added
According to Johansson’s statement to NPR, Sam Altman was proposed to Scarlett Johansson back in September to allow her voice to be licensed for the ChatGPT voice assistant. But the Hollywood actress declined the offer, and now she feels betrayed after noticing the strong resemblance of her voice with ChatGPT’s Sky.
“After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer,” said Johansson
Speaking of the ChatGPT-4o demo and Sam Altman’s post on X that wrote “her”, Johansson in a press statement said that the similarity between the voices is intentional,
“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,” said Johansson “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.” she added
The actress also said that just two days before the ChatGPT-4o demo, Altman again reached out to her agent – asking her to reconsider.
“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.”
Speaking of the ongoing scenario of deepfakes and the need for regulation – assuring the protection of individual rights, the actress said,
“In time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our 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 concluded
According to documents shared by OpenAI, and interviews with people involved in the development of ChatGPT voice assistant, The Washington Post said that the voice actor behind “Sky” was hired in June 2023 – two months prior to approaching Scarlett Johansson.
The agent representing the voice actor behind Sky said that neither of Johansson and her role in the movie “her” was mentioned during the casting process.
Joanne Jang, OpenAI product manager said that the company selected voice actors who were keen to work on the AI product. She also added that Mira Murati, the CTO was the sole decision-maker for the AI voice assistant project.
Jang also noted that Sky’s voice sounded nothing like Scarlett Johansson’s despite sharing some vocal qualities like breathiness and huskiness. The controversy has led OpenAI to pause Sky’s voice in ChatGPT “out of respect” for Johansson’s concerns. Sam Altman also apologized to the Hollywood actor, saying that the voice “was never intended to resemble hers.” However, Johansson points out Altman’s post, in which he had written just “her,” which the actor says is a reference to the film in which she voiced an AI system, named “Samantha.”
Until now, the voice actor behind the Sky voice of ChatGPT remains anonymous, and legal experts suggest that Scarlett Johansson may still have a strong case against OpenAI if she chooses to pursue legal action. They have cited similar previous cases involving celebrities and businesses, such as Bette Midler’s lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. in the 1980s.
