OpenAI solid the actor of Sky’s voice months earlier than Sam Altman contacted Scarlett Johansson, and it had no intention of discovering somebody who gave the impression of her, in response to The Washington Post. The publication mentioned the flier OpenAI issued final yr appeared for actors that had “heat, participating [and] charismatic” voices. They wanted to be between 25 and 45 years outdated and needed to be non-union, however OpenAI reportedly did not specify that it was searching for a Scarlett Johansson voice-alike. In case you’ll recall, Johansson accused the company of copying her likeness with out permission for its Sky voice assistant.
The agent of Sky’s voice informed The Submit that the corporate by no means talked about Johansson or the film Her with their expertise. OpenAI apparently did not tweak the actor’s recordings to sound like Johansson both, as a result of her pure voice gave the impression of Sky’s, primarily based on the clips of her preliminary voice take a look at that The Submit had listened to. OpenAI product supervisor Joanne Jang informed the publication that the corporate chosen actors who have been desirous to work on AI. She mentioned that Mira Murati, the corporate’s Chief Expertise Officer, made all the choices concerning the AI voices venture and that Altman was not intimately concerned within the course of.
Jang additionally informed the publication that to her, Sky sounded nothing like Johansson. Sky’s actress informed The Submit by way of her agent that she simply used her pure voice and that she has by no means been in comparison with Johansson by the individuals who know her intently. However in a press release Johansson’s group shared with Engadget, she mentioned that she was shocked OpenAI pursued a voice that “sounded so eerily comparable” to hers that her “closest buddies and information retailers couldn’t inform the distinction” after she turned down Altman’s provide to voice ChatGPT.
Johansson mentioned that Altman first contacted her in September 2023 with the provide after which reached out once more simply two days earlier than the corporate launched GPT-4o to ask her to rethink. Sky has been certainly one of ChatGPT’s voices since September, however GPT-4o gave it the facility to have extra human-like conversations with customers. That made its similarities to Johansson’s voice extra obvious — Altman tweeting “her” after OpenAI demonstrated the brand new massive language mannequin did not assist with the state of affairs and invited extra comparisons to the AI digital assistant Johansson voiced within the film. OpenAI has paused utilizing Sky’s voice “out of respect” for Johansson’s considerations, it wrote in a blog post. The actor mentioned, nevertheless, that the corporate solely stopped utilizing Sky after she employed authorized counsel who wrote Altman and the corporate to ask for a proof.
In case you’re questioning if Sky really does sound like Johansson, we embedded a video beneath so you’ll be able to choose for your self. It is a recording of Johansson’s assertion as learn by the Sky voice assistant, posted by Victor Mochere on YouTube. Opinions within the remark part are divided, with some saying that it does sound like her if she have been robotic, whereas others say that the voice sounds extra like Rashida Jones.
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