Scarlett Johansson wants explanations about the Sky voice

Recently, a controversy involving actress Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, came to the fore.

Johansson alleges that after turning down an offer to be the voice of ChatGPT, OpenAI created a voice that sounds very similar to hers, prompting her to seek legal advice and send letters to the company asking for explanations about how the voice, known as Sky, was created. Find out more about the fact.

Read too:

GPT-4o: new version of ChatGPT is faster and brings premium functions to free mode
Man uses ChatGPT to chat with more than 5 thousand women on Tinder; and even got engaged to one of them

Scarlett Johansson’s initial proposal and refusal

In September last year, Scarlett Johansson received a proposal from Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, to lend her voice to the ChatGPT 4.0 system. According to Johansson, Altman remained in contact with her agent until two days before the first ChatGPT voice demonstration, urging her to reconsider her decision.

Scarlett Johansson, known for her role as the voice of an AI assistant in the film “Her”, was highly sought after by Altman, who expressed his admiration for the actress’ work in the film, revealing it to be his favorite. The actress refused the proposal on every occasion.

The situation intensified when OpenAI introduced an AI model update highlighting a more expressive voice for Sky, a virtual assistant, during a recent event. It turns out that the striking similarity between Sky’s voice and Johansson’s caught the public’s attention and generated immediate comparisons with the film “Her”. This resulted in headlines and even a joke on the TV show “Saturday Night Live.”

Johansson, upon noticing the similarity, expressed her surprise and indignation, mentioning that Sky’s voice sounded “scary similar” to her own voice, so much so that even her friends thought it was really hers.

OpenAI, for its part, stated that Sky’s voice was provided by a hired actress who used her natural voice. The company did not reveal the actress’ identity, citing privacy concerns.

OpenAI decides to stop Sky’s voice for now

Following the controversy, Sam Altman released a statement to The Verge, clarifying that Sky’s voice is not Scarlett Johansson’s and that it was never intended to sound like hers. Altman stated that the choice of the actress for Sky’s voice was made before any contact with Johansson and that, out of respect for the actress, OpenAI paused the use of Sky’s voice in its products. He also apologized for the lack of clear communication with Johansson.

We’ve heard questions about how we chose the voices in ChatGPT, especially Sky. We are working to pause the use of Sky while we address them.

Read more about how we chose these voices: https://t.co/R8wwZjU36L

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 20, 2024

OpenAI announced on Monday morning that it was removing Sky’s voice to address concerns raised about the choice of voices in ChatGPT.

For Johansson, the main issue now is gaining transparency about the process of creating Sky’s voice. In a statement, it said it was seeking a “resolution in the form of transparency” and asked OpenAI to detail the exact process by which Sky’s voice was developed.

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati previously told The Verge that Sky’s voice was not designed to imitate Johansson. Joanne Jang, model behavior lead at OpenAI, also mentioned that the company is “in conversations” with Johansson’s representatives to address the concerns raised.

Statement by Scarlet Johansson

Check out the post and the translation of the actress’ message below:

Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI situation. Wow: pic.twitter.com/8ibMeLfqP8

— Bobby Allyn (@BobbyAllyn) May 20, 2024

“Last September, I received a proposal from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to be the voice of the current ChatGPT 4.0 system. He told me he felt that by lending my voice to the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives, as well as help consumers feel comfortable with the seismic shift involving humans and AI. He said he thought my voice would be comforting to people.

After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer. Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public noticed how much the new system called “Sky” sounded like me.

When I heard the demo released, I was shocked, angered, and incredulous that Mr. Altman would have sought out a voice so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and media outlets couldn’t tell the difference. Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word, “her” – a reference to the film in which I played the voice of a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human.

Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider. Before we could communicate, the system was already live.

As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire a lawyer, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, explaining what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the “Sky” voice. Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to remove “Sky’s” voice.

At a time when we are all dealing with deepfakes and protecting our own image, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are issues that deserve absolute clarity. I hope for a resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”

Fonte: The Verge