One of the characters that ChatGPT uses is being taken away by OpenAI. The company revealed on Monday that users thought it sounded like Scarlett Johansson. In response, Johansson said in a statement that she had hired a lawyer to look into the Sky voice and find out exactly how it was made. The game Sky is being stopped because OpenAI used it last week to show off its new GPT-4o model.
According to the company in a blog post, AI voices shouldn’t try to sound like famous people. For example, Sky’s voice is not a copy of Scarlett Johansson’s; it belongs to a different professional actress who uses her own natural speaking voice. “To protect their privacy, we can’t say who does our voice work.”
Last week, a video of the demo went viral on social media because people thought the speech sounded like Scarlett Johansson’s. There were jokes about how flirtatious the voice was, and some people compared it to a man’s dream.
People have said that the flirty voice sounds a lot like Scarlett Johansson’s role as a seductive virtual helper in the 2013 movie “Her.” Joaquin Phoenix plays the lead role in the movie, and the main character falls in love with the virtual helper.
The company hasn’t said anything about the similarity between Sky’s voice and Johansson’s, but OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted the word “Her” after the event.
Later on Monday, Johansson said in a statement that OpenAI had asked her to provide the voice in September. This was first reported by Bobby Allyn of NPR. She said in the statement that she said no “after giving it a lot of thought and for personal reasons.” She also said that she was “shocked” when she heard the demo that was made public.
In the statement, it also says that she “had to hire a lawyer” and that the company “reluctantly agreed” to change the Sky voice.
OpenAI’s test last week was supposed to show off the chatbot’s better ability to have conversations, but it went viral when the sultry voice laughed at almost everything an OpenAI employee said. It said to the worker, “Wow, that’s quite the outfit you’re wearing at one point.” There was another time when the robot got complimented and said, “Stop it, you’re making me blush.”
It says in a blog post that it wants the voices of its robots to sound “approachable” and “inspire trust.” It also wants them to have a voice that is “warm, engaging, confidence-building, and charismatic.”
In the future, OpenAI says it will “add more voices to ChatGPT to better match the wide range of users’ interests and preferences.”
The Whole Message From Johansson:
“In September, Sam Altman asked me to work for him as a voice actor for the current ChatGPT 4.0 system.” He told me that he thought by speaking out about the system, I could help tech companies and artists work together and make people feel better about the huge change between humans and AI. He told me that he thought my singing would make people feel better.
I turned down the offer after giving it a lot of thought and for personal reasons. After nine months, everyone, including my friends, family, and strangers, said that the new system called “Sky” sounded a lot like me.
When I heard the tape that was made public, I was shocked, angry, and confused that Mr. Altman would be interested in a voice that sounded so much like mine that even my closest friends and news outlets couldn’t tell the difference. By tweeting the word “her,” Mr. Altman even made it sound like the resemblance was on purpose, referring to the movie in which I voiced Samantha, a chatbot who becomes close with a person.
Mr. Altman called my agent two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 test came out and asked me to think again. It was out there before we could connect.
Because of what they did, I had to hire a lawyer. The lawyer sent two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI explaining what they had done and asking them to explain in detail how they made the “Sky” voice. Because of this, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to remove the “Sky” character.
Many of us are dealing with deepfakes and how to protect our own likenesses, work, and identities right now. I think these are questions that need to be answered completely. “I look forward to resolution in the form of openness and the passing of appropriate legislation to help protect individual rights.”
OpenAI shared this quote from Altman: “Sky’s voice is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never meant to sound like hers.” Before we reached out to Ms. Johansson, we hired the voice actor who would be Sky’s voice. Because we respect Ms. Johansson, we have stopped using Sky’s voice in our apps and games. We’re sorry that we didn’t talk to Ms. Johansson better.
Also Read: Openai Lets People See What Its Ai is Doing Behind the Scenes
Update: This story was first released on Monday at 8 a.m. PT and has been changed to include what Johansson and Altman said.
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