Scarlett Johansson, a renowned actress, recently accused OpenAI of using her voice without her consent in the ‘chatbot’ ChatGPT. Johansson had initially turned down an offer from OpenAI to provide her voice for the chatbot in September 2023. However, after the release of the new GPT-4o model by OpenAI, she noticed that the ‘Sky’ voice in the updated chatbot sounded eerily similar to her own voice.
Johansson expressed shock and disbelief at how similar the voices were and accused OpenAI of imitating her voice without her consent. Despite rejecting the initial offer, OpenAI allegedly used the ‘Sky’ voice that resembled Johansson’s voice. The actress hired legal counsel to address the situation and demanded transparency regarding the voice creation process of ‘Sky.’
OpenAI responded by discontinuing the use of the ‘Sky’ voice in ChatGPT and clarified that it belonged to a different professional actress with her natural voice. Johansson emphasized the importance of protecting individual rights in the face of technological advances like ‘deepfakes.’ She called for transparency and appropriate legislation to safeguard artists’ work and identities.