OpenAI Postpones Launch Of Voice Assistant A Month After Scarlet Johansson Blasted The ChatGPT Parent For Allegedly Replicating Her Voice Without Permission

OpenAI has decided to delay the release of its highly anticipated voice assistant feature for ChatGPT, citing the need to address safety issues.

What Happened: On Tuesday, the AI announced the delay on X, formerly Twitter, stating that it requires an additional month to meet its launch standards. “We had planned to start rolling this out in alpha to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users in late June, but need one more month to reach our bar to launch,” the company stated.

The company has now decided to postpone the launch to improve the model’s ability to detect and refuse certain content, enhance the user experience, and prepare its infrastructure for scaling to millions of users while maintaining real-time responses.

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OpenAI has announced that it plans to release the voice feature to all its paid subscribers in the fall. The company is also working on launching video and screen-sharing features, which were demonstrated during the May event.

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Why It Matters: In May, at the launch event of GPT-4o, OpenAI employees demonstrated ChatGPT responding almost instantly to various requests, such as solving a math problem on a piece of paper placed in front of a researcher's smartphone camera.

Some viewers compared the tool to the AI virtual assistant in the 2013 film “Her,” voiced by Scarlett Johansson. The actress later demanded that one of the ChatGPT voices be removed for sounding too similar to hers.

Johansson stated that she was “forced to hire” legal counsel to address the use of her voice by OpenAI's chatbot. The actress disclosed that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman approached her in September to lend her voice to ChatGPT. However, after careful consideration and for personal reasons, she declined the offer.

She received support from the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists or SAG-AFTRA.

The organization, which represents television and radio artists, backed Johansson in her dispute with OpenAI stating, “We thank Ms. Johansson for speaking out on this issue of crucial importance to all SAG-AFTRA members. We share in her concerns and fully support her right to have clarity and transparency regarding the voice used.”

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.