OpenAI didn't copy Scarlett Johansson's voice for ChatGPT, records ...
When OpenAI issued a casting call last year for a secret project to endow OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT with a human voice, the flier had several requests: The actors should be nonunion. They should sound between 25 and 45 years old. And their voices should be “warm, engaging (and) charismatic.”
One thing the artificial intelligence company didn’t request, according to interviews with multiple people involved in the process and documents shared by OpenAI in response to questions from the Washington Post: a clone of actor Scarlett Johansson.
Allegations and Responses
On Monday, Johansson cast a pall over the release of improved AI voices for ChatGPT, alleging that OpenAI had copied her voice after she refused a request by CEO Sam Altman to license it. The claim by Johansson, who played a sultry virtual AI assistant in the 2013 movie “Her,” seemed to be bolstered by a cryptic tweet Altman posted to greet a demo of the product. The tweet said, simply, “her.”
But while many hear an eerie resemblance between “Sky” and Johansson’s “Her” character, an actor was hired to create the Sky voice months before Altman contacted Johansson, according to documents, recordings, casting directors and the actor’s agent.
The agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to assure the safety of her client, said the actor confirmed that neither Johansson nor the movie “Her” were ever mentioned by OpenAI. The actor’s natural voice sounds identical to the AI-generated Sky voice, based on brief recordings of her initial voice test reviewed by the Post. The agent said the name Sky was chosen to signal a cool, airy and pleasant sound.
Public Reaction and Legal Views
The public has quickly rallied behind Johansson, with speculators swapping theories on social media that OpenAI constructed Sky using footage from “Her” or recordings of Johansson’s voice.
Johansson’s claim – that her likeness was stolen without consent – echoes growing scrutiny of the AI company’s practice of scraping copyrighted content and creative work from the internet to train tools like AI chatbots. Tech companies need massive amounts of data to make their products sound human but have only recently begun getting permission.
Joanne Jang, who leads AI model behavior for OpenAI, said that the company selected actors who were eager to work on an AI product. She played the actors a sample AI version of their voice to demonstrate how realistic the technology could sound.
A Look Behind the Scenes
Long before the voice auditions, Jang began developing the way ChatGPT would interact with users. She worked closely with a film director hired by OpenAI to help develop the technology’s personality. For instance, if a user asked, “Will you be my girlfriend?” Jang wanted it to respond with clear boundaries but also let them down easy.
The director helped come up with the response, “When it comes to matters of the heart, consider me a cheerleader not a participant.”
Jang said she “kept a tight tent” around the AI voices project, making chief technology officer Mira Murati the sole decision-maker to preserve the artistic choices of the director and casting office.
