‘Eerily similar’: Scarlett Johansson accuses OpenAI of using her voice for ChatGPT’s Sky
Scarlett Johansson FILE PHOTO: Actors Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson attend 'Her' Premiere during The 8th Rome Film Festival at Auditorium Parco Della Musica on November 10, 2013 in Rome, Italy. Johansson says OpenAI's voice Sky sounds "eerily similar" to hers. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images) (Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)
By Natalie Dreier, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Scarlett Johansson is accusing OpenAI of using her voice for the AI platform’s chatbot.
Johansson said she had declined to lend her voice to the Sky system but that OpenAI’s ChatGPT’s voice sounded “eerily similar” to her own voice, Reuters reported.
The actress, who voiced an AI chatbot in the film “Her,” released the statement hours after OpenAI announced it was taking down the voice of “Sky.” The company did not say why, NBC News reported.
The company said it was not Johansson’s voice that powered Sky but the voice of another, unnamed actress.
“The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson,” CEO Sam Altman said in a statement. “Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”
However, Johansson said Altman reached out to her in September to voice a ChatGPT system, but she turned it down. She also said she was contacted a second, more recent time, and once again declined, The New York Times reported.
“Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me,” the “Black Widow” actress said. “When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference.”
Johansson has hired a lawyer to investigate how the voice was created.
OpenAI unveiled GPT-4o, its the newest model, which lets users talk to the system and get real-time responses in a more realistic way than previously available, Reuters reported.
According to OpenAI, “It can respond to audio inputs in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which is similar to human response time in a conversation.”
Here is the live demo OpenAI did:
And here is the trailer from “Her,” starring Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix:
Sky is one of five voices created for the virtual assistant which include Breeze, Cove, Ember and Juniper, the Times reported. They were all recorded last summer in San Francisco.
OpenAI has faced several copyright violation lawsuits filed by actors, authors and newspapers.
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost have welcomed their first baby together, a boy named Cosmo, Jost said on social media on Aug. 18, 2021. Here are some memorable photos of Johansson through the years. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson at the Sony Style Store in New York City in 1996. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson in 1997. (Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson in 1998. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson in 1998. (Tom Wargacki/WireImage)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson in 1999. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson in 2000. (Rob Beccaris/WireImage)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson at the DGA in Los Angeles in 2001. (Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson in 2002. (Jon Furniss/WireImage)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actress Scarlett Johansson attends the 61st annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 25, 2004, in Beverly Hills, California. (Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson Attends The 56th BAFTA British Academy Film Awards in London's Leicester Square in 2004. (Justin Goff\UK Press via Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actress Scarlett Johansson in Roland Mouret arrives to the 62nd annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 16, 2005, in Beverly Hills, California. (Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson during the 63rd annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, in 2006. (J. Vespa/WireImage)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson during the 49th annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center in Los Angeles in 2007. (Dan MacMedan/WireImage)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actress Scarlett Johansson attends the "The Other Boleyn Girl" premiere as part of the 58th Berlinale Film Festival at the Berlinale Palast on February 15, 2008, in Berlin, Germany. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actress Scarlett Johansson attends the "He's Just Not That Into You" film premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on February 2, 2009, in Los Angeles. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson attends the 2010 MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre on June 6, 2010, in Universal City, California. (Gregg DeGuire/MTV/FilmMagic)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actress Scarlett Johansson arrives at the 68th annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton hotel on January 16, 2011, in Beverly Hills, California. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson attends the "Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations" Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2012, in New York City. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actress Scarlett Johansson attends the Scarlett Johansson "Under the Skin" pre-premiere dinner hosted by Evian at Hudson Kitchen during the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2013, in Toronto, Canada. (George Pimentel/Getty Images For Evian)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actress Scarlett Johansson and Romain Dauriac arrive for the 39th Cesar Film Awards 2014 at Theatre du Chatelet on February 28, 2014, in Paris, France. (Rindoff Petroff/Hekimian/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actress Scarlett Johansson attends the 87th annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 22, 2015, in Hollywood, California. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actors Nick Kroll, Scarlett Johansson, Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, singers Tori Kelly, Jennifer Hudson and actor Taron Egerton attend the "Sing" premiere during the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival at Princess of Wales Theatre on September 11, 2016, in Toronto, Canada. (George Pimentel/WireImage)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actress Scarlett Johansson attends the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 26, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California. (John Shearer/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson (left) and Colin Jost attend the 70th Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 17, 2018, in Los Angeles. (John Shearer/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Actress Scarlett Johansson during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on October 21, 2019. (Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Scarlett Johansson arrives at the EE British Academy Film Awards 2020 at Royal Albert Hall on February 2, 2020, in London. (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Photos: Scarlett Johansson through the years Honoree Scarlett Johansson accepts the MTV Generation Award via video during the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards at the Hollywood Palladium on May 16, 2021, in Los Angeles. (Kevin Mazur/2021 MTV Movie and TV Awards/Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS)