Scarlett Johansson vs OpenAI: A Chatbot Controversy

OpenAI, an AI research lab and company, aims to create AI and control it in ways that “benefit all of humanity.” It was initially a non-profit organization due to its founders’ concerns about the potential misuse and catastrophe from AI being utilized “in the wild.” A few speculators pooled together $1 billion to convey research and resources that stay open to the public. Recently, OpenAI has made specific changes and introduced a voice assistant to engage customers, but there was a controversy about chatGPT.  Let’s have a brief discussion about Scarlett Johansson vs OpenAi. 

Scarlett Johansson vs OpenAI

Hollywood actor Scarlett Johansson recently scrutinised OpenAI over a ChatGPT voice that she claims is “eerily similar” to hers. According to reports, she was moreover “forced to enlist legal counsel” to get the voice expelled from ChatGPT. Following this, the company has taken down the voice called Sky, expressing that they did it “out of respect for Ms Johansson.” The Scarlett Johansson vs. OpenAI debate sparked discussions about the ethics and boundaries of AI technology.

The concept of utilizing celebrity voices for smart voice assistants isn’t new. Enormous names like Google, Amazon, and Meta have collaborated with notable celebrities to create special AI identities for their voice-based assistants in the past. Subsequently, it’s not shocking to see OpenAI wanting to make its ChatGPT AI bot sound like Scarlett Johansson, particularly since the actress has received acclaim for voicing an AI bot in one of her movies (the 2013 Joaquin Phoenix-starrer Her).

All about the Scarlett Johansson discussion, including OpenAI

The seeds of the latest Scarlett Johansson contention, including OpenAI, were planted last September when ChatGPT got its voice capabilities. Over the following months, OpenAI worked on giving GPT -4 multimodal capabilities and released it to the public as GPT-4o.

This modern model permits the updated form of ChatGPT to react normally and incorporate different discourse nuances to make the discussion appear more human. Ever since the viral demo was released to the public, the media and fans drew a mysterious resemblance between ChatGPT’s new voice model, Sky, and Scarlett Johansson. Soon after, Johansson’s legal group got suspicious and reached out to OpenAI for clarifications.

Simultaneously, the actress’ group moreover discharged a statement that uncovered their concerns.

In the explanation, Johansson’s group says that Sam Altman reached out to the actress in September to expand a part to voice the ChatGPT 40 chatbot. Although Altman was persuaded that her voice might “bridge the hole between tech companies and creatives,” Johansson declined the offer, citing personal reasons.

Nine months have passed since the offer, and the actress presently finds a tremendous resemblance between the chatbot’s Sky voice framework and hers.

“When I listened to the launched demo, I was stunned, angered, and doubtful that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so frightfully similar to mine that my closest companions and news outlets may not tell the difference,” Johansson said in the statement.

Additionally, the actress moreover alludes to Altman’s post on X that contained a single word ‘her.’ This is accepted to be a reference to the movie Her, where Scarlett Johansson voiced the chatbot called Samantha.

The Black Widow actress says that two days earlier to the launch of the new GPT model, Altman had reached out to her group once more to reexamine the offer. In any case, the model was launched before the group could get back.

“As a result of their activities, I was constrained to contract legal advice, who composed two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, setting out what they had done and inquiring them to detail the correct process by which they made the “Sky” voice. Thus, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the “Sky” voice,” recognizes the statement.

What does OpenAI have to say?

In reaction to the actress's concern, OpenAI has temporarily removed the Sky voice model, and the group is in discussions to resolve the issue.

However, OpenAI states that Sky isn’t attempting to mimic the actress’ voice. In truth, Sky was voiced by another voice actor who is said to have lent her normal voice after hours of screening and casting process.

“We accept that Artificial Intelligence voices do not intentionally imitate a celebrity’s particular voice — Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a diverse proficient actress utilising her claim natural talking voice. To secure their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents,” says OpenAI in its statement.

OpenAI x Scarlett Johansson discussion: The outcome

Soon after Johansson’s group published the explanation and contacted OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT delayed utilizing Sky—an improvement that Johansson’s group recognized in the explanation. At the moment, both parties are attempting to work out the issue.

If Scarlett Johansson and her group provide a green flag, Sky will become the default choice of voice for ChatGPT Plus supporters depending on GPT-4o.