Scarlett Johansson expresses shock and anger over OpenAI's voice that closely resembles her own

OpenAI temporarily stopped using the resembling voice from Spike Jonze's 2013 film 'Her' during a demonstration of GPT-4o.

According to an article on Variety, actress Scarlett Johansson refused OpenAI's proposal to use her voice for a chatbot, expressing her surprise and frustration at the company's use of a voice that closely resembled hers. Johansson's legal team reached out to OpenAI in order to request the removal of Sky's voice, one of the latest additions to the GPT-4o chatbot.

In a demonstration of GPT-4o, OpenAI unveiled the Sky voice that strongly resembled Johansson's disembodied AI companion from Spike Jonze's 2013 film "Her." The company announced earlier on Monday that they would temporarily stop using the Sky voice.

In September 2023, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman contacted Johansson to offer her a job providing the voice for ChatGPT 4.0. She chose not to for "personal reasons." Johansson urged for laws to safeguard people from having their identity, image, or likeness wrongfully exploited.

OpenAI clarified that the voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's and was never meant to be similar to hers. The company has temporarily stopped using Sky's voice in its products as a sign of respect for Johansson.

The ChatGPT voice resembling Johansson was featured in a joke on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live, targeting Colin Jost, her husband and co-host of Weekend Update.

Jost mentioned that ChatGPT launched a new voice assistant feature modeled after Scarlett Johansson's AI character in 'Her,' a movie he has never bothered to watch since the appeal lies in the physical presence.