Actress Scarlett Johansson is threatening Sam Altman and his company OpenAI with legal action, alleging they copied her voice for ChatGPT without her permission.
Johansson, who was the voice of the artificial intelligence assistant in the 2013 science fiction movie “Her,” said ChatGPT’s “Sky” voice is so eerily similar to hers that her closest friends could not tell the difference.
In a statement provided to USA TODAY, Johansson said Altman asked her to be the voice of his AI system and, when she turned him down, he copied her voice anyway.
Altman even made another effort to recruit Johansson, she said.
“Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider,” she wrote. “Before we could connect, the system was out there.”
Altman denied that the voice is Johansson's. OpenAI said it supports stronger protections against deepfakes and works to prevent its synthetic voices from copying those of real people.
"The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's, and it was never intended to resemble hers," Altman said in a statement late Monday. "We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better."
When OpenAI released a demo of its latest ChatGPT model last week, it included “Voice Mode,” with an emotive AI answering questions. One of those voices was "Sky."
“When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference," Johansson said. "Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word ‘her’ - a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human.”
OpenAI said it is “pausing” the use of the Sky voice to address questions about how it chose the ChatGPT voices.
A Sunday blog post from the artificial intelligence company says Sky’s voice “is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice,” and that the company "carefully selected" each of the voices over the course of a five-month process.
Johansson said her legal counsel wrote two letters to Altman and OpenAI asking them to "detail the exact process by which they created the 'Sky' voice.
"Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the 'Sky' voice," she said.
The news was first reported by NPR.
The spat with Johansson comes at a tricky time for OpenAI, which is facing litigation from media companies, authors and artists for allegedly using their materials without consent or compensation.
“Johansson is one of the world’s most famous actresses, and she speaks for an entire class of creatives who are now wrestling with the fact that automated systems have begun to erode the value of their work. OpenAI’s decision to usurp her voice for its own purposes will now get wide and justified attention,” journalist Casey Newton wrote in Platformer Monday.
Another powerful player, SAG-AFTRA, said it is backing Johansson. The influential union that represents television and radio artists is fighting over the rights to actors' voices and images as studios look to tap AI to create entertainment. SAG-AFTRA said supports federal legislation that would protect its members' voices and likenesses from unauthorized digital replication.
"We thank Ms. Johansson for speaking out on this issue of crucial importance to all SAG-AFTRA members. We share in her concerns and fully support her right to have clarity and transparency regarding the voice used," SAG-AFTRA said Tuesday in a statement.
Altman said in a speech last year that he and other OpenAI executives were inspired by “Her,” the tale of a lonely man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his virtual assistant Samantha (Johansson).
OpenAI employees tweeted references to the movie on social media platform X after last week’s announcement. Altman posted one word: “her.”
Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, said the OpenAI team was more inspired by human conversation than “Her.” “When you stop talking, I’m about to jump in. I can kind of read your tone and respond to that. And it’s really natural, rich and interactive,” she said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When asked by USA TODAY, ChatGPT said Sky's voice "doesn't specifically mimic Scarlett Johansson's voice," and that it was developed to have a "neutral, natural tone rather than emulating any particular celebrity's voice."
Johansson, a star in the Marvel universe, has challenged business behemoths before. In 2021, she settled a breach of contract lawsuit she brought against Walt Disney over her payout for "Black Widow."
This is Johansson's full statement:
“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system. He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.
After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer. Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named "Sky" sounded like me.
When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference. Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word "her" - a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who 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 out there.
As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, 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.
In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity. I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”
