Actor Scarlett Johansson has accused OpenAI of copying her tone for one of the most tone assisstants in ChatGPT in spite of denying the corporate permission to take action. Johansson’s observation on Monday got here hours next OpenAI stated that the corporate would now not utility the tone in ChatGPT however didn’t handover a reason.
“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system,” Johansson wrote within the observation shared through her people family members crew with Engadget (NPR first reported the tale). “He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.” Johansson added that she declined the do business in next “much consideration and for personal reasons,” but if OpenAI demoed GPT-4o, the corporate’s actual immense language fashion extreme while, “my friends, family, and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ’Sky’ sounded like me.”
When Johansson noticed OpenAI’s latest demo, she stated she was once “shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mind that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference.” She additionally seen that Altman had contacted her agent simply two days prior to the corporate seen GPT-4o and requested her to rethink, however excused the gadget anyway prior to she had a anticipation to reply.
“The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers,” an OpenAI spokesperson stated in a observation despatched to Engadget that the corporate attributed to Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO. “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.”
Although “Sky” has been one of the most tone assisstants in ChatGPT since September 2023, GPT-4o, which the corporate introduced extreme while, takes issues a step additional. The corporate stated that the pristine fashion is nearer to “much more natural human-computer interaction” and demoed its executives having just about human-like conversations with the tone workman in ChatGPT. This invited comparisons to Samantha, the digital tone workman performed through Johansson within the 2013 film Her who has an intimate dating with a human being. In a while next the development, Altman tweeted a unmarried assurance — “her” — in an obvious connection with the movie.
On Monday, OpenAI stated that it was once pausing the utility of “Sky” in ChatGPT and excused a long put up revealing how the corporate rented skilled tone actors to build its personal digital assistants, and denying any similarities with Johansson’s tone.
“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,” OpenAI wrote and added that each and every of its performers, who it declined to call for privateness causes, was once paid “above top-of-market rates, and this will continue for as long as their voices are used in our products.”
This advance, Johansson stated in her observation, most effective got here next she rented felony recommend who wrote two letters to Altman and OpenAI requesting an evidence. “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 wrote. “I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”
Replace, Would possibly 20 2024, 9:09 PM ET: This tale has been up to date to incorporate a observation from OpenAI.
