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Scarlett Johansson is speaking out against OpenAI after the company claimed in a blog post yesterday that its ChatGPT voice Sky wasn't "an imitation" of the Her actress.
In a statement provided to PCMag, Johansson says:
"Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system. He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.
Johansson's statement comes nearly eight months after OpenAI first released its voice feature for ChatGPT, where Android and iOS mobile users can chat with one of five different ChatGPT voices. But last week, OpenAI showed off its new ChatGPT-4o model with a "flirty" voice that sounds like Johansson. That same day, Altman made the "Her" tweet.
In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman insisted that "the voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”
Over the weekend, Johansson's husband Colin Jost made a joke on Saturday Night Live about the striking similarities between Johansson's voice and ChatGPT's, stating that it was "inspired" by her AI character in the 2013 movie Her. At time of writing, Sky is still available on ChatGPT's iOS mobile app.
Considering Hollywood actors went on strike for months last year in large part due to concerns over AI stealing their voices or jobs without their consent, OpenAI now has some damage control to do if it plans to take its tech, like Sora, to the big screen.
Johansson, meanwhile, has no trouble taking legal action. She sued Disney for releasing Black Widow simultaneously on streaming and in theaters, which she said was a breach of contract. The two sides later settled.