Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson has said she was left “shocked” and “angered” after OpenAI launched a chatbot with an “eerily similar” voice to her own.
The actress said she had previously turned down an approach by the company to voice its new chatbot, which reads text aloud to users.
When the new model, called Sky, debuted last week commentators were quick to draw comparisons between the chatbot’s tone and Johansson’s in the 2013 film Her.
OpenAI said on Monday that it would remove the voice, but insisted that it was not meant to be an “imitation” of the star.
However, Johansson accused the company, and its founder Sam Altman, of deliberately copying her voice, in a statement seen by the UAE Breaking News on Monday evening.
“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,” she wrote.
“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.”
Set in the near future, 2013 film Her sees Joaquin Phoenix fall in love with his device’s operating system, which is voiced by Ms Johansson.
The two-time Academy Award nominee said she was first approached by Altman to voice the new chatbot in September.
“[Altman] feels that by speaking out about this system, he can bridge the gap between tech companies and creators, and help consumers get used to the big changes in how people and AI feel.” told me,” Johansson wrote.
“He said he felt my voice would comfort people.”
However, she said she ultimately declined the offer for personal reasons.
Sky Two days before the release of her chatbot, Ms. Altman contacted her representative and urged Ms. Johansson to reconsider her initial refusal to work with the company, she added. Ta. The
actress added that she was forced to hire a lawyer, and she said she sent two legal documents to the company to find out what happened to the vote.
“At a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and protecting our likenesses, our work, and our identities, I believe these are issues that deserve absolute clarity,” she wrote.
Mr. Altman denied that the company had attempted to imitate Mr. Johansson’s voice.
“Sky’s voice is not Scarlett Johansson’s, nor was it intended to resemble her,” he wrote.
“We chose a voice actor to voice Skye before turning to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have discontinued using Skye’s voice in our products.” Mr. Johansson, I’m sorry that communication didn’t go well.
Separately, the company is working to “pause” her audio when answering questions about how she was singled out for posts on X (formerly Twitter) said. .
OpenAI said in a blog post that her five voices used in the chatbot are from voice actors it collaborated with.
Copyright Lawsuit
The lawsuit comes just six months after actors agreed to call off a strike that has frozen the entertainment industry over demands for better wages and protections when using AI. woke up.
Ms Johansson took part in industrial action last year over issues such as how studios use AI to imitate actors’ faces and voices.
The contract signed with the studio included a guarantee that these would not be used without the actors’ consent.
“At a time when there is widespread distrust of AI and concerns about its potential to cause harm, we find using someone else’s voice without their permission especially troubling,” says AI voice licensing company Voice said Swap Director Dan Stein.
“Whether OpenAI trained her new Sky voice with Scarlett Johansson’s voice or similar sounds, the fact that she refused permission and her identity was exploited in any case. remains the same.
“If the most prominent company in the space takes this action, it sets a dangerous precedent regarding copyright and consent.”
OpenAI is available online. We fight various legal challenges regarding the use of copyrighted information.
In December, the New York Times said it planned to launch a lawsuit against the corporation over allegations that it had used “millions” of articles published by the media organisation to train its ChatGPT AI model.
And in September, authors George RR Martin and John Grisham also announced a plan to pursue a claim, over allegations their copyright had been infringed to train the system.