Just days before OpenAI showed off its flirtatious new voice assistant last week, actress Scarlett Johansson, the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, called her agent and asked her to consider licensing her voice for a virtual assistant.
It was his second request to the actress in the past year, Ms. Johannson said in a statement on Monday, adding that the answer was no both times.
Despite these refusals, Ms. Johansson said, OpenAI used a voice that sounded “eerily similar to mine.” She has hired a lawyer and asked OpenAI to stop using the voice called “Sky.”
OpenAI suspended the release of “Sky” over the weekend. The company said in a blog post on Sunday: “AI voices should not intentionally mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice – Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson, but belongs to another professional actress using her own natural speaking voice.”
In the 2013 film “Her,” a lonely introvert named Theodore, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is seduced by a virtual assistant named Samantha, voiced by Ms. Johansson. Last week, in a post on X, Mr. Altman appeared to point out the similarity with the single word “her.”
OpenAI said it could not share the names of its language professionals for privacy reasons. It said it worked with unknown directors and producers to develop five voices for its product: Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper and Sky. The voices were recorded in San Francisco last summer.
Ms. Johansson’s statement was previously reported by NPR’s Bobby Allyn.
Ms Johansson is the latest high-profile person to criticize OpenAI for using creative works without permission. Last year, OpenAI was sued for copyright infringement by authors, actors and newspapers, including the Authors Guild of America and the New York Times, which sued OpenAI and its partner Microsoft.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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2024-05-21 02:23:44
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