OpenAI, however, maintains that Sky's voice is not an imitation of Johansson's but belongs to a different professional actress. Altman stated that the voice actor was hired before the company contacted Johansson and apologized for not communicating better. This incident adds to OpenAI's ongoing legal battles over allegations of inappropriate use of copyrighted content to train its algorithms.
Key takeaways:
- OpenAI recently introduced a new synthetic voice for ChatGPT that was strikingly similar to Scarlett Johansson's voice in the movie _Her_, but quickly disabled it after Johansson's lawyers demanded clarification on how the voice was created.
- Johansson claims she was asked by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to provide the new voice for ChatGPT but declined, and was shocked to hear a voice that sounded like hers in the company's demo.
- After hiring legal counsel and demanding details on how the voice was created, OpenAI announced it would pause the use of the synthetic voice, named "Sky", and clarified that the voice was not an imitation of Johansson's but belonged to a different professional actress.
- This incident adds to OpenAI's existing legal battles with artists, writers, and other creatives over allegations of inappropriate use of copyrighted content to train its algorithms.