Scarlet Johansson opened up to be “shocked, angered and in disbelief”, accusing the company OpenAI for taking her voice without her consent for a new ChatGPT project.
The Academy Award-nominated actress, 39, released a detailed statement explaining the issue through her publicist Marcel Pariseau to NPR, Monday.
Johansson claimed that after she didn’t allow the company to use her voice, they went ahead and cloned one indifferentiable from her own.
“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system,” the New York City native said.
“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 Al.”
She added, “He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people. After much consideration and for personal reasons, declined the offer.”
Johansson then revealed that less than a year later, the company apparently went ahead with their plans about her voice.
“Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me,” Johansson said.
“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.”
She further explained, “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.”
Johansson claimed that Altman called her agent “two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released’ asking her to reconsider their offer to work for them.”
“Before we could connect, the system was out there,” Johansson said.
“As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAl, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the ‘Sky’ voice.”
Johansson claimed that OpenAl “reluctantly agreed to take down the ‘Sky’ voice after she contacted them.”
