- OpenAI demoed a voice for ChatGPT last week that many thought sounded like Scarlett Johansson.
- The actor said she declined an offer from Sam Altman to voice ChatGPT and was "angered" by the similarity.
- OpenAI said that it was pausing the voice and that it wasn't intended to imitate Johansson.
Scarlett Johansson said in a statement that she was "shocked" and "angered" when OpenAI released a voice for its new GPT-4o model that sounded "eerily similar" to her own after she'd declined an offer from Sam Altman to voice the chatbot.
OpenAI announced its GPT-4o model last week along with improved voice capabilities for its artificial-intelligence assistant, including several voice options. One of the voices immediately sparked comparisons to the movie "Her," in which a man falls in love with an AI chatbot voiced by Johansson.
OpenAI said late Sunday night it was pausing the voice known as Sky, but it didn't specify why. In a blog post, the company said it worked with real voice actors to create each of the voices.
"We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice — Sky's voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice," the blog post said.
In a statement provided to Business Insider on Monday, Johansson said when she heard the Sky demo she was "in disbelief" that Altman would go with a voice that sounded so similar to hers.
The actor said the OpenAI CEO first reached out to her in September to hire her to voice ChatGPT because he believed it could "bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives" and that Johansson's voice would be comforting to the public.
Johansson said in the statement that she turned down the offer and that Altman even reached out to her two days before GPT-4o was announced to ask her to reconsider. Before she could respond, the demo had been released, she said.
She said Altman even alluded to the voice being intentionally similar to hers with a one-word X post in which he simply wrote, "her."
In a statement provided to BI, Altman said the Sky voice wasn't Johansson's and wasn't intended to be similar to hers.
"We cast the voice actor behind Sky's voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky's voice in our products," Altman said. "We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn't communicate better."
Johansson said that as a result of OpenAI's actions she was "forced to hire legal counsel," who sent letters to the company asking them to explain how the voice of Sky was made. She said OpenAI then "reluctantly" agreed to take down the voice.
"In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity," she said in the statement. "I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected."
Katie Notopoulos contributed reporting to this story.
May 20, 2024 — This story has been updated to include a statement from Sam Altman.