Top line
ChatGPT maker OpenAI said Monday it is working to remove a voice that sounds like actress Scarlett Johansson, days after the company unveiled its new AI voice assistant as part of a major upgrade to its flagship chatbot that beats the competition with companies like Siri and Apple’s Siri tightening up Amazon’s Alexa.
One of OpenAI’s voices for ChatGPT has been frequently compared to actress Scarlett Johansson.
Important facts
OpenAI explained in a post early Monday morning
“We have heard questions about how we selected the voices in ChatGPT, particularly Sky,” OpenAI said, adding that the voice is paused until it can answer the questions.
Sky is one of the five voices that OpenAI introduced as part of its latest AI model GPT-4o, which powers the company’s trademark ChatGPT and allows users to interact with the bot using their voice and provide responses in kind to obtain.
Sky attracted widespread attention for her striking resemblance to Johansson, particularly her role as an AI voice assistant in the film Her.
OpenAI itself has acknowledged the vocal similarities between Sky and Johansson, but emphasized that the voice “is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson” and belongs to “another professional actress with her own natural speaking voice.”
OpenAI CTO Mira Murati told The Verge: Sky wasn’t designed to sound like Johansson either, and the company had been preparing the voices for some time.
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Crucial quote
OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman cryptically posted the word “her” on X after the update and votes were revealed. The tweet was widely received as a reference to the film, in which Johansson lends her voice to the role of a virtual assistant. Altman has previously said “Her” is one of his favorite films.
What we don’t know
While OpenAI is keen to rule out Johansson as a source for Sky, the company said it was not prepared to disclose who the singing talent driving the product is. “To protect your privacy, we cannot share the names of our speakers,” OpenAI wrote in a blog. The company emphasized that it believes that “AI voices should not intentionally mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice.”
News Peg
The GPT-4o upgrade is the latest version of OpenAI’s powerful GPT4 model, the driving force behind the ChatGPT chatbot. The company says the upgrade is faster, expands functionality in text, audio and image, and will be free for all users. The addition of a voice assistant feature cements the company as solid competition to tech giants and adds to the threat it already poses in areas like generative AI and search engines. In particular, the voice assistant feature for ChatGPT puts OpenAI in more direct competition with other digital voice assistants, including Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa.
What you should pay attention to
To obtain the five votes, OpenAI said it “worked with industry-leading casting and directing professionals to narrow down over 400 submissions before selecting the five votes,” with the actors traveling to San Francisco for their recording sessions last June and July have flown. Each received “above-market rates” for their work, OpenAI said, adding that “even more” language options will be introduced in the future.
tangent
Johansson has already been the subject of AI mimicry online. In November, she sued an AI app developer for using her name and likeness in an online advertisement. She was recently named, along with Conan O’Brien and singer Ariana Grande, as an example in a proposed class action lawsuit against an AI startup accused of embezzling celebrities’ votes, according to reports.
Forbes rating
Altman has an estimated net worth of $1 billion. However, Altman’s wealth does not come from OpenAI as it does not own shares in the company, but rather he owes his wealth and billionaire status to a number of valuable investments. These include stakes in the recently listed Reddit, the fintech Stripe and the nuclear fusion company Helion. Altman founded social mapping company Loopt and was partner and president of startup accelerator Y Combinator before founding OpenAI.
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