OpenAI claims it didn’t intentionally copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT

Scarlett Johansson, an actor, has alleged that OpenAI is using a voice that closely resembles hers as one of its AI model’s voices.

Following the decision to temporarily halt one of their voice models due to its striking resemblance to Scarlett Johannsson’s voice, a report from the Washington Post has revealed that this similarity was unintentional.

According to the article, the company had put out a call for actors aged 25 to 40 with “warm, engaging, charismatic”voices last year. These actors did not have to be part of a union, and the company was not specifically seeking individuals with voices similar to Scarlett Johansson’s.

Additionally, the voice actress was brought on board several months prior to the outreach from OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, who had contacted the actor to provide the voice for one of the AI models.

The Post spoke with multiple individuals involved in the hiring process, as well as the actor’s agent responsible for providing the voice of Sky, in order to verify if there were any references to Johansson or instructions to imitate her voice.

The Post listened to the clips of the actor’s initial test and concluded that their voice naturally resembled Johansson’s character in the movie “Her.”The report also states that OpenAI did not make any adjustments to the voice to mimic Johansson’s.

“As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel.”Scarlett Johansson’s statement on the OpenAI ‘Sky’ voice sounding similar to hers pic.twitter.com/F1NhtXY7R6

— dexerto (@dexerto) May 20, 2024

Johansson claimed that the company had used her voice without her consent for the AI assistant known as Sky. She stated that Sam Altman had reached out to her team in an attempt to persuade her to change her mind about not providing her voice for the upcoming ChatGPT 4.0 demo release.

Through her agent, Sky’s actress also informed The Post that she always uses her natural voice and has never been compared to Johansson by those who are familiar with her.

Despite this, OpenAI has simply put a temporary hold on utilizing Sky’s voice; however, you can still utilize ChatGPT’s remaining four voices.