San Francisco: Actress Scarlett Johansson expressed her astonishment on Monday regarding an OpenAI synthetic voice that closely resembles hers, which was released after she declined involvement in such a project with the ChatGPT-maker.
The AI powerhouse, led by Sam Altman, stated it was working to temporarily suspend the Johannson-sounding voice, referred to as “Sky.”
Johansson conveyed her shock and disbelief at the striking similarity between the AI voice and her own, expressing frustration that even her close friends and news outlets couldn’t discern the difference, in a statement.
She disclosed that Altman had approached her in September with an offer to collaborate with OpenAI to develop a synthetic voice, suggesting it could offer comfort to people interacting with AI.
Altman has previously cited the Johansson-voiced character in the film “Her” as inspiration for the direction he envisions AI interactions taking.
Johansson recounted how Altman seemingly implied the intentional likeness in voices, referencing the movie “Her” with a single-word tweet: “Her.”
OpenAI clarified in a blog post that the “Sky” voice in question was modeled after the natural speaking voice of a different professional actress and was not intended to mimic Johansson.
The company stated its belief that AI voices should not intentionally imitate a celebrity’s distinct voice and emphasized that Sky’s voice was not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson.
OpenAI is working on a method to “pause” Sky while addressing the apparent confusion surrounding its resemblance, the company announced.
Johansson revealed she has requested a thorough explanation from OpenAI regarding the creation of “Sky.”
In explaining its process, the company noted that it collaborated with professional voice actors to develop synthetic voices named Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper, and Sky.
However, Sky gained significant attention last week when OpenAI unveiled an enhanced “GPT-4o” version of its artificial intelligence technology, resulting in an even more human-like performance. In a demonstration, the new version of Sky displayed flirtatious and humorous traits, seamlessly transitioning between topics, unlike most existing chatbots.
Amid the AI advancement, most tech giants have been cautious about overly humanizing chatbots. Microsoft Vice President Yusuf Mehdi emphasized the importance of AI being recognized as a unique entity distinct from humans.
Recently, OpenAI announced the dissolution of a team dedicated to addressing the long-term risks of artificial intelligence, integrating team members into other projects and research endeavors. Company co-founder Ilya Sutskever and superalignment team co-leader Jan Leike announced their departures from the San Francisco-based firm last week.
