Scarlett Johansson “forced” to hire legal counsel over new ChatGPT voice model

ChatGPT-4o was announced by OpenAI with the new ability for users to interact with the program through speech. However, one of the voice models, Sky, has been paused for use due to it sounding too similar to actress Scarlett Johansson.

OpenAI claimed that Sky was “not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson” and they believed no AI voices should deliberately mimic a celebrity’s voice. However, they did not reveal who the voice actor was trained on. 

A day after OpenAI paused the usage of Sky, Johansson responded to the ChatGPT voice model, revealing before Sky’s release she had been approached by OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and that she was “forced” to hire legal counsel. 

“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system,” Johansson began.

“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.” 

After some consideration Johansson says she turned down the offer, only to be “shocked” to hear Sky’s demo nine months later which sounded similar to her voice. 

She points out that Altman insinuated that the similarity was intentional as he tweeted out “her”, which is in reference to the Spike Jonze film Her. In which Johansson plays a voice chat system named Samantha. 

She further reveals that close to ChatGPT 4.0’s demo release, Altman asked her and her agent to “reconsider.”

However, before they could respond it was already publicly released. 

“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,” the statement reads.

“Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the “Sky” voice.”