Scarlett Johansson has complained about a ChatGPT voice that sounds “eerily similar” to her. She reportedly hired a lawyer to remove Sky from ChatGPT. Following her protest, OpenAI removed the voice out of respect for Johansson.
OpenAI asked Johansson to utilize her voice in their project, but she declined. On May 20, she accused the tech company of impersonating her voice without permission.
Johansson told The Verge, “Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system.” “Nine months later, my friends, family, and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “Sky’s voice was never meant to sound like Scarlett Johansson’s. We cast Sky’s voice actor before contacting Johansson.”
Johansson said she needed legal help. “I had to employ legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI explaining what they did and demanding them to explain how they generated the ‘Sky’ voice. She stated that OpenAI reluctantly removed the ‘Sky’ voice. Sky has been replaced with Juniper.
Altman continued, “We stopped using Sky’s voice in our goods out of respect for Ms. Johansson. We apologize to Ms. Johansson for our poor communication.”
Johansson stressed the issue’s broader significance, saying, “In a time of deepfakes and the preservation of our likeness, work, and identities, these problems demand unequivocal clarity. Transparency and adequate laws to defend individual rights are my hopes.”