In a surprise announcement this week, OpenAI revealed that it has launched a chatbot that had a voice that was eerily similar to Scarlett Johansson’s voice. The actress said that last she had turned down an offer from OpenAI to perform a bot read a text to the user.
A few days later as the new model called Sky was unveiled, critics have also pointed out how the voice resembled that of Johansson in the 2013 film where she portrayed a chat system that became a soulmate to a human male.
OpenAI’s Response
OpenAI has pulled the voice of the Tuesday it filed the statement claiming that the voice was not meant to show Johansson. But the actress alleged that the company and Sam Altman plotted to use her voice. After hearing the released demo I was simply in disbelief and shocked and angry that Mr. Alten was seeking to mimick and replicate my voice audio in such a way,” Scarlett Johansson told the BBC in a statement. One of her points was that Altman had sent just one word into the Twittersphere: ‘her’. O’Neal considered this to be a direct mention of her participation in the movie.
Initial Approach and Rejection
It was revealed that Altman had approached Scarlett Johansson in September to provide the voice of the chatbot; Johansson claimed that her voice could help companies focused on technology close the gap between technology and art and allow the human population to accept the use of AI. While there is no indication of what caused her to turn down the role, these latter assurances don’t seem to have swayed Johansson either. According to the sources who knew the facts, two days prior to the release of the chatbot Altman called the girl’s agent and once again asked her to refrain from the launching. Johansson filed a lawsuit and engaged lawyers to sue Open AI twice in order to find out how the voice was produced.
Legal and Ethical Concerns
In a time when we are all dealing with deepfakes and new ownership of our own images, our own works, our own selves for good or for ill – I do not feel entirely comfortable with it”. Johansson has not responded to these allegations but OpenAI states that celebrities’ unique voices should not be present AI voices. Disney has temporarily suspended the use of the Sky voice while addressing the issues involved.
