Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI, is suddenly faced with a foe more formidable than any member of his company's board of directors: Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson.
The actor said in a statement in September that Altman asked her to voice ChatGPT's text-to-speech product because he was “comfortable” with her voice, but she declined the offer, according to the New York Times. announced. Nine months later, when ChatGPT announced its voice product, one of its options looked so much like Johansson herself that she was “shocked, angry, and my closest friends were eerily surprised.” I can't believe that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that resembles mine.” And the press couldn't tell the difference. ”
Johansson added in a statement to The Times that she had hired lawyers to ask Altman how OpenAI created the voice it calls Sky. Altman has publicly declared that his favorite movie is “Her,” the 2013 film in which Johansson starred as a voice-over robot.
Launched in 2023, the company's so-called voice mode feature allows users to interact by speaking to ChatGPT, a widely used “generative” artificial intelligence software. It also functions as a text-to-speech tool that reads the user's responses to her prompts in one of five different voice options.
OpenAI said Sky does not belong to Johansson, but the company said it would suspend its use to answer user questions about how voices are selected and sampled in ChatGPT.
“We are working to temporarily suspend the use of Sky while we address the issue,” the company said in a statement to X (formerly Twitter).
In a blog post late Sunday, OpenAI detailed how it creates the different voices and reiterated that Sky's option uses the voices of actors other than Johansson.
“We believe that AI voices should not intentionally imitate a celebrity's signature voice. Skye's voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson, but rather another professional actress “Voice actors use natural speaking voices. To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice actors,” the company said in a post.
OpenAI worked with casting experts and voice actors to narrow down the final five voices from 400 choices. The company noted that actors will be paid as long as their voices are used in ChatGPT's products. Winners were chosen based on a variety of criteria, including timelessness and ease of voice.
Johansson said Monday through a spokeswoman that Altman contacted her last September about speaking out about the system, but that she “declined the offer.” She said Altman contacted the agent again two days before the audio demo was released and “asked them to reconsider,” but the audio was released “before he could contact her.”
“When I heard the public demo, I was shocked, outraged, and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice so eerily similar to mine that close friends and the press could not distinguish it,” Johansson said. “Mr. Altman hinted that the resemblance was intentional, tweeting the word 'her,' a reference to a film in which I voiced Samantha, a chat system that develops intimate relationships with humans.”
Johansson said he had his attorney contact Altman and OpenAI and “ask for details of the exact process that created the 'Sky' voice.” After those requests, the audio was deleted, Johansson said.
Some users lamented the company's decision to temporarily disable Sky, calling it their “best” or “favorite” voice. If the audio was sampled from a paid actor, it's unclear why the company felt it necessary to remove it. OpenAI has not said when audio will be available again.
