Scarlett Johansson vs OpenAI: Actor hired lawyers to push back against Sam Altman company. Here's why

Scarlett Johansson said that she received an offer from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in September with respect to voicing an audio feature for ChatGPT.

Hollywood actor Scarlett Johansson said that she was “forced to hire legal counsel” to push for the removal of an artificial intelligence voice from OpenAI’s chatbot which sounded like her. The actor said that she received an offer from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in September with respect to voicing an audio feature for ChatGPT but she decided not to participate in the project “after much consideration and for personal reasons.”

Scarlett Johansson said that she was “forced to hire legal counsel” to push for the removal of an artificial intelligence voice from OpenAI’s chatbot. (Reuters)

She said that Sam Altman “told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI.”

This comes after OpenAI released new audio tools and staged demonstrations that included a voice called Sky which Scarlett Johansson claimed sounded like her.

She said, “When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine."

However, Sam Altman said the Sky voice “is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better."

The company has taken down the voice called Sky and replaced it with another voice called Juniper. Sky, Juniper and three other voices had been available since September.

The company said, “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.”