OpenAI, in a blog post, stated that the AI voice was developed from the voice of another actress, whose identity is not being revealed to protect her privacy. The company also said that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice. Johansson used the incident to highlight the lack of legal safeguards around the use of creative work in AI tools and called for transparency and appropriate legislation to protect individual rights.
Key takeaways:
- Scarlett Johansson's lawyers are demanding that OpenAI disclose how it developed an AI personal assistant voice that the actress says sounds uncannily similar to her own.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had offered to hire Johansson to voice the new ChatGPT voice assistant, but she declined the offer. The company later released a voice that sounded similar to Johansson's, which she found alarming and a personal affront.
- OpenAI has stated that the AI voice, known as 'Sky', was developed from the voice of another actress, not Johansson, and that it believes AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice.
- Johansson used the incident to draw attention to the lack of legal safeguards around the use of creative work to power leading AI tools, and is calling for transparency and appropriate legislation to protect individual rights.