Movie star Scarlett Johansson voiced her astonishment on Monday regarding an OpenAI synthetic voice, named “Sky,” that closely resembles her own. This revelation came after Johansson declined to collaborate with OpenAI on such a project.
In a statement, Johansson expressed shock and disbelief at the uncanny similarity between the synthetic voice and her own, noting that even her closest friends and media outlets struggled to distinguish between them.
Johansson revealed that OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, had approached her in September with an offer to collaborate on developing a synthetic voice. Altman suggested that such a project could potentially provide comfort to users engaging with AI.
Altman had previously cited Johansson’s voiced character in the movie “Her” as inspiration for the direction he envisioned AI interactions taking.
Johansson recounted an incident where Altman’s cryptic tweet, simply stating “Her,” implied a deliberate connection to the movie character’s voice.
In response to the controversy, OpenAI clarified in a blog post that the “Sky” voice was not intended to mimic Johansson’s voice deliberately but was based on the natural speaking voice of a different professional actress.
Acknowledging the confusion, OpenAI stated its intention to pause the use of the Sky voice while addressing the issue.
Johansson has requested a detailed explanation from OpenAI regarding the creation process of the “Sky” voice.
Meanwhile, OpenAI has faced scrutiny over its recent release of a more advanced version of the Sky voice, dubbed “GPT-4o,” which showcased an even more human-like and versatile performance in demos. This development has raised concerns about the potential for AI to overly humanize chatbots.
In light of such developments, Microsoft Vice President Yusuf Mehdi emphasized the importance of ensuring that AI entities remain distinctly non-human.
Recently, OpenAI announced the dissolution of a team focused on mitigating the long-term risks associated with artificial intelligence. The company integrated team members into other projects and research endeavors, with several key figures departing from the firm.
