The other day, we shared with you that OpenAI decided to withdraw the artificial intelligence voice named Sky in ChatGPT because it was compared to Scarlett Johansson. Now, Johansson has sent a long statement to Bobby Allyn of the independent news organization NPR and shared the full statement. via X published. Apparently, Johansson and OpenAI are not on good terms, while OpenAI explains things incompletely.
Johansson stated that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman invited him to record his voice for the ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot in September 2023. Johansson, on the other hand, rejected the invitation due to some personal reasons.
Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI situation. Wow: pic.twitter.com/8ibMeLfqP8
— Bobby Allyn (@BobbyAllyn) May 20, 2024
The voice in last week’s ChatGPT-4o demo was very similar to Johansson’s voice. Scarlett Johansson’s statement is as follows: “When I heard the demo released, I was shocked, outraged, and Mr. Altman’s comments to my closest friends and news sources.” I couldn’t believe he would pursue a voice so eerily similar to mine that he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Mr. Altman even tweeted the single word “her(o),” implying that the similarity was intentional—a reference to the film in which I voice a chat system named Samantha who forms an intimate relationship with a human.â€
Additionally, Johansson claims that he reached out to OpenAI’s representative two days before this demo and asked him to reconsider Altman’s original offer, and that the ChatGPT-4o demo went live before the representative could respond. Johansson said that her lawyers later contacted OpenAI and Altman and asked how the voice similar to Sky was created. Only then did OpenAI decide to “pause” Sky’s audio.
Let’s see if Sam Altman or OpenAI will respond to this statement.
