Actress Scarlett Johansson has hired “legal counsel” against OpenAI for allegedly replicating her voice using artificial intelligence technology.
What Happened: On Monday, Johansson said that she was “forced to hire” legal counsel to address the use of her voice by OpenAI’s chatbot. The actress revealed that she was approached by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in September to lend her voice to the company’s AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT.
However, she declined the offer “after much consideration and for personal reasons,” reported Bloomberg.
“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,” she said.
OpenAI unveiled new audio tools last week, accompanied by demonstrations that included a voice called, Sky, which Johansson claims sounds “eerily similar” to her own. The company has since replaced Sky with a different voice, Juniper.
“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,” Johansson said in the statement.
Why It Matters: In a blog post released on Sunday, OpenAI denied intentionally mimicking Johansson’s voice, stating that Sky’s voice belongs to a different actress using her natural speaking voice.
“We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice—Sky's voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice. To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents,” the company stated.
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Johansson is known for portraying characters like the Marvel superhero Black Widow. She also played the role of an AI virtual assistant in the 2013 film “Her.” The link between OpenAI and the movie was highlighted further by Altman, when he posted the word “her” on X, formerly Twitter, shortly after the release of the company’s newest AI model.
The use of AI to replicate celebrity voices has been a growing concern. In 2023, venture capitalist Tim Draper warned of scammers using AI to mimic his voice for fraudulent activities in the cryptocurrency space. This issue has also affected the music industry, with artists like Bad Bunny expressing outrage over AI imitations of their songs going viral.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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