Scarlett Johansson ‘shocked and angry’ after OpenAI allegedly recreated her voice without consent | Science and technology news

Scarlett Johansson said she was “shocked” and “angry” after OpenAI allegedly recreated her voice without her consent for a new ChatGPT system.

The actress released a statement where she personally criticized the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, for insinuating that she was the voice called ‘Sky’ by posting the word ‘she’ in the X, a reference to a film where she voiced an AI for which a human fell in love. with.

“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system,” said the 39-year-old Oscar nominee.

“He told me he felt that by giving the system a voice, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers feel comfortable with the seismic shift toward humans and AI. He He said he felt my voice would be comforting to people.”

She went on to say that for personal reasons she turned down the offer, and nine months later her attention was drawn to how much “Sky’s” voice sounded like her.

“When I heard the demo released, I was shocked, angry and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would follow a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and media outlets couldn’t tell the difference,” said Johansson.

“Mr Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting the single word ‘her’ – a reference to the film in which I voiced Samantha, a chat system, which forms an intimate relationship with a human.

“Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was available.

“As a result of your actions, I was forced to hire a lawyer, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the ‘Sky’ voice. Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the ‘Sky’ voice.”

“At a time when we are all fighting against deepfakes and protecting our own image, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are issues that deserve absolute clarity. of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”

On Monday, OpenAI released a statement saying it would “pause” the use of a ChatGPT voice after users noticed it sounded like the actress.

OpenAI said: “We hear questions about how we choose voices on ChatGPT, especially Sky.

“We are working to pause Sky usage while we resolve this.”

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O artificial intelligence The company (AI) offers five voices that can speak responses generated through its GPT Chat service.

OpenAI has previously denied that it intentionally copied Johansson and said he believes “AI voices should not deliberately imitate a celebrity’s distinctive voice.”

The New York Times sued OpenAI late last year over allegations that it and its largest investor, Microsoft, illegally used the newspaper’s articles to train and create ChatGPT.

The lawsuit alleges that the AI ​​text model now competes with the newspaper as a source of trusted information and threatens the organization’s ability to provide such a service.