Days earlier than OpenAI demonstrated its new, flirty voice assistant final week, the actress Scarlett Johansson mentioned, Sam Altman, the corporate’s chief govt, referred to as her agent and requested that she contemplate licensing her voice for a digital assistant.
It was his second request to the actress up to now 12 months, Ms. Johannson mentioned in a press release on Monday, including that the reply each occasions was no.
Regardless of these refusals, Ms. Johansson mentioned, OpenAI used a voice that sounded “eerily much like mine.” She has employed a lawyer and requested OpenAI to cease utilizing a voice it referred to as “Sky.”
OpenAI suspended its launch of “Sky” over the weekend. The corporate mentioned in a weblog put up on Sunday that “AI voices shouldn’t intentionally mimic a star’s distinctive voice — Sky’s voice will not be an imitation of Scarlett Johansson however belongs to a special skilled actress utilizing her personal pure talking voice.”
Within the 2013 film “Her,” a lonely introvert named Theodore, performed by Joaquin Phoenix, is seduced by a digital assistant named Samantha, voiced by Ms. Johansson. Final week, Mr. Altman appeared to nod to the similarity in a put up on X with the one phrase “her.”
OpenAI mentioned it couldn’t share the names of its voice professionals for privateness causes. It mentioned it had labored with unidentified administrators and producers to develop 5 voices for its product: Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper and Sky. The voices have been recorded final summer season in San Francisco.
Ms. Johansson’s assertion was reported earlier by NPR’s Bobby Allyn.
Ms. Johansson is the most recent high-profile particular person to criticize OpenAI for utilizing inventive work with out permission. Over the previous 12 months, OpenAI has been sued for copyright violations by authors, actors and newspapers, together with the Authors Guild of America and The New York Occasions, which sued OpenAI and its associate, Microsoft.
This can be a growing story. Examine again for updates.
