Last week OpenAI unveiled a new conversational interface for ChatGPT, which features an expressive, artificial voice similar to the AI assistant played by Scarlett Johansson in the sci-fi movie. herOnly for Turn off suddenly A new voice for the weekend.
On Monday, Johansson issued a statement saying he forced the change after his lawyers asked OpenAI to clarify how the new voice was created.
of Johansson Report, sent to WIRED by his publicist, says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman asked him to provide ChatGPT’s new voice last September but declined. He describes being surprised when the company demoed a new voice for ChatGPT last week, which sounded like him anyway.
“When I heard the release demo, I was shocked, outraged, and incredulous that Mr. Altman would follow a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets couldn’t tell the difference,” the statement read. It notes that Altman appeared to encourage the world to connect the demo with Johansson’s performance by tweeting, “”herOn May 13, a note about the movie.
Johansson’s statement comes after Altman contacted his agent two days before last week’s demo, asking him to reconsider his decision not to work with OpenAI. After seeing the demo, he says he hired legal counsel to write to OpenAI.
This led to the announcement of OpenAI, the report said Post on X It has decided to “discontinue use of Skye”, the company’s name for artificial voice. The company also released a post Blog Outlines the process used to create voice. “Sky’s voice is not a reflection of Scarlett Johansson, but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice,” the post said.
Skye was one of several artificial voices that presented OpenAI ChatGPT last September, but at last week’s event it sounded more lifelike with emotional notes. The demo saw a version of ChatGPT powered by a new AI model called GPT-4o, which seems to be flirting with the OpenAI engineer, which many viewers found reminiscent of Johansson’s performance. her.
“Sky’s voice is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it never sounded like her,” Sam Altman said in a statement provided by OpenAI. He said the voice actor behind Sky’s voice was hired before the company contacted Johansson. “Mrs. Out of respect for Johansson, we have stopped using Skye’s voice in our productions. We are sorry to Ms. Johansen that we did not communicate better.
The conflict with Johansson adds to OpenAI’s ongoing battles with artists, writers and other creators. The company is already fending off several lawsuits, including those by The New York Times and authors including George RR Martin, alleging that it inappropriately used copyrighted material to train its algorithms.
Generative AI has made it much easier to create realistic synthetic voices, creating new opportunities and threats. In January, voters in New Hampshire were bombarded with robocalls containing Joe Biden’s deep-voiced message. In March, OpenAI said it had developed technology that could clone a person’s voice from a 15-second clip, but the company said it would not release the technology because of how it could be misused.
5-20-2024, 9 pm EDT: This article has been updated with a comment from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
