Scarlett Johansson “shocked” and “angered” by ChatGPT imitating her voice
Actor Scarlett Johansson has responded to OpenAI allegedly imitating her voice for a character on its new ‘Voice Mode’ service, revealing she declined the opportunity to record for the role.
Sky in ‘Voice Mode’ was compared to Johansson’s character in the 2013 film Her, which sees herplay a phone operating system that Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls in love with, in the movie. Significantly, ahead of the demo of ‘Voice Mode’, OpenAI founder Sam Altman posted “her” on his X account, and has also previously named the Spike Jonze flick as his favourite movie of all-time.
Speaking at Dreamforce 2023 in San Francisco last year, Altman said: “I like Her. The things Her got right—like the whole interaction models of how people use AI—that was incredibly prophetic.”
Now, Johansson has revealed she was contacted by Altman to voice a character by OpenAI, but refused to do so. In a statement, the actor explained: “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 Al. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.”
While Johansson gave the project “much consideration”, she chose to decline the offer for “personal reasons” and believed that would be the end of the matter. She continued: “Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me. 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.”
The Her star also used Altman’s previous tweet as proof “the similarity was intentional” before revealing, “Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider.”
Johansson added: “Before we could connect, the system was out there. As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr Altman and OpenAl, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the ‘Sky’ voice. Consequently, OpenAl reluctantly agreed to take down the ‘Sky’ voice.”
The actor believes this issue is bigger than herself, continuing, “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. I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”
OpenAI previously denied Sky was designed to imitate Johansson, stating, “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.”
Furthermore, last year, Johansson filed legal action against the developers of another artificial intelligence application that used her likeness and name in one of their online advertisements without permission.
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