Scarlett Johansson Hires Legal Counsel Over New ChatGPT Voice Model Controversy

OpenAI has recently unveiled ChatGPT-4o, which allows users to interact with the program through speech. Unfortunately, one of the voice models, Sky, has been temporarily suspended due to its striking resemblance to the voice of actress Scarlett Johansson.

OpenAI asserted that Sky was not designed to imitate Scarlett Johansson and that they firmly believed that AI voices should not intentionally mimic those of celebrities. However, they chose not to disclose the identity of the voice actor on which Sky was trained.

The day after OpenAI suspended the use of Sky, Johansson reacted to the ChatGPT voice model, stating that she had previously been approached by OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and that she felt “compelled”to seek legal representation prior to Sky’s launch.

“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 began by stating that in September of last year, they were offered a job by Sam Altman to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system.”

“He expressed his belief that my vocalization of the system could serve as a bridge between tech companies and creatives, ultimately helping consumers embrace the significant changes involving humans and AI.”

Upon careful thought, Johansson reveals that she declined the offer, only to be taken aback when she heard Sky’s demo nine months later, which bore a striking resemblance to her own voice.

Altman’s tweet, in which he referenced the Spike Jonze film Her by using the pronoun “her,”insinuated that the similarity between Johansson’s character Samantha, a voice chat system, and the film was intentional. Johansson herself pointed this out.

In addition, she discloses that Altman requested her and her agent to “reconsider”close to the demo release of ChatGPT 4.0.

Nonetheless, it was publicly released before they could respond.

“After their actions, I had no choice but to seek legal assistance. My legal counsel wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, outlining their actions and requesting a thorough explanation of the process used to create the “Sky”voice,”the statement states.

“As a result, OpenAI reluctantly complied with the request to remove the “Sky”voice.”