Scarlett Johansson sought legal counsel after AI research company OpenAI mimicked her voice for its new ChatGPT 4.0 system's voice demo.
The 39-year-old Marriage Story actor issued a statement on X (formerly Twitter), explaining the situation in the hopes of passing "appropriate legislation" to protect the rights of individuals.
The threat of advanced AI compromising the identities of and replacing actors was one of the contentious issues the SAG/AFTRA strike addressed last year.
According to Johansson's statement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—who was fired and reinstated in November—approached the actor last September to hire her to voice ChatGPT's current 4.0 system to help "bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives" because her voice is "comforting to people."
After much consideration, Johansson declined due to "personal reasons."
Yet OpenAI forged ahead. The voice of its new system, named "Sky," sounds just like Johansson—enough to confuse her friends, industry colleagues, and social media users convinced they were listening to the actor.
Johansson explained what happened after she turned down OpenAI's offer.
"Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me.”
OpenAI even referenced Johansson's movie Her in a single-word tweet, indicating it was a deliberate decision to choose a voice that evoked Johansson's AI virtual assistant character Samantha from the 2013 film.
Johansson continued:
"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."
"Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word 'her'– a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human."
Here is the first part of Johansson's statement.
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Johansson went on to say that two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Altman contacted her agent again and asked her to reconsider.
She wrote:
“As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the ‘Sky’ voice."
“Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the “Sky” voice.”
The statement concluded with:
"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.”
You can see the remaining half of her statement here.
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YouTuber Victor Mochere used ChatGPT to feature the AI voice of Sky reading Johansson's statement, which you can hear in the clip below.
Scarlett Johansson's statement on OpenAI's illegal usage of her voice read by the Sky AI voiceyoutu.be
Last November, Altman was fired from OpenAI due to concerns about his handling of AI safety, in addition to abusive behavior allegations.
However, he was reinstated on November 22 after investors objected and staff members shocked by the news of his ouster threatened to quit their positions at the company.
Users weighed in on the unsettling situation as AI tech becomes an increasing presence in our lives.
Due to overwhelming concerns about the situation, OpenAI stated they would "pause" using Sky's voice.
On Monday, the AI research organization linked a blog post about the process behind creating the voices through an extensive casting process.
They tweeted:
"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."
The blog post read in part:
“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.”
They continued:
"In early 2023, to identify our voice actors, we had the privilege of partnering with independent, well-known, award-winning casting directors and producers."
"We worked with them to create a set of criteria for ChatGPT's voices, carefully considering the unique personality of each voice and their appeal to global audiences."
The organization said its casting agency issued a call for talent in May 2023 and received over 400 submissions from actors in less than a week.
As part of the audition process, the actors were asked to record their reading of ChatGPT script responses, ranging from answering various questions, suggesting travel plans, and even casual conversations with users about their day.
The extensive list was narrowed to 14 actors.
OpenAI said they remained transparent during the process.
"We spoke with each actor about the vision for human-AI voice interactions and OpenAI, and discussed the technology’s capabilities, limitations, and the risks involved, as well as the safeguards we have implemented," they said, adding:
"It was important to us that each actor understood the scope and intentions of Voice Mode before committing to the project."
"An internal team at OpenAI reviewed the voices from a product and research perspective, and after careful consideration, the voices for Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper and Sky were finally selected."
"This entire process involved extensive coordination with the actors and the casting team, taking place over five months."
OpenAI said they will continue collaborating with actors who have contributed "additional work for audio research and new voice capabilities in GPT-4o."
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