OpenAI suspends ChatGPT ‘Scarlett Johansson’ voice due to potential misuse | Science and Technology Update
OpenAI has announced a “pause” in the use of a ChatGPT voice after users noticed it sounded similar to actress Scarlett Johansson.
The artificial intelligence (AI) company offers five voices that can generate answers through its ChatGPT service.
Some users pointed out that one of the voices, named Sky, resembled Johansson’s voice, who famously voiced an AI assistant in the film Her released in 2013.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seemed to reference the film on social media platform X, posting the word “her” on May 13th – the same day the firm showcased interactions with the voices through the new AI chatbot GPT-4o.
A week later, the company denied any intentional imitation of Johansson and stated their belief 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,” OpenAI explained in a blog post.
“To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents.”
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. Pic: Reuters
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However, in a statement on Monday, OpenAI stated: “We’ve received questions about how we selected the voices in ChatGPT, particularly Sky.
“We are working to suspend the use of Sky while we address these concerns.”
The New York Times sued OpenAI at the end of last year over allegations that it, along with its major investor Microsoft, unlawfully used the newspaper’s articles to train and develop ChatGPT.
The lawsuit claims that the AI text model now competes with the newspaper as a reliable source of information and jeopardizes the organization’s ability to provide such a service.
