Title: Why Scarlett Johansson is Angry with ChatGPT: Did AI really Copy Her Voice?
Introduction:
So what does Sam Altman have to say about the fact that Scarlett Johansson turned down a gig where she would provide her voice to OpenAI, only for the company to use a voice that sounds uncannily like her? He flat-out denied that it was ever meant to duplicate Johansson’s voice. “The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers,” Altman said in a statement. “We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”
The Controversy Unfolds:
The company did stop using the voice of “Sky,” which Johansson believes sounds just like her, and the company itself also released a statement attempting to clarify that Sky’s voice was provided by an unnamed actor. “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,” OpenAI said in the statement.
The Bigger Conversation: AI and Public Figures:
While these statements do address Johansson’s extremely specific concerns, this entire situation brings up a bigger conversation, which is how easily AI tools can be used to imitate public figures. To that point, this type of problem was a big part of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes that shook up the industry in 2023.