SAG-AFTRA, the labor union that represents countless numbers of Hollywood actors, recommended Scarlett Johansson for publicly contacting out OpenAI for employing a voice that sounded “eerily comparable” to hers in its new GPT-4o product.
“We thank Ms. Johansson for speaking out on this issue of important importance to all SAG-AFTRA associates,” a spokesperson for the guild stated in a assertion Tuesday. “We share in her fears and totally assistance her appropriate to have clarity and transparency with regards to the voice applied in building the Chat GPT-4o equipment ‘Sky.'”
“SAG-AFTRA customers are among the most gifted and typically most recognizable people today on the planet,” the union spokesperson extra. “That is why we’re strongly championing federal legislation that would guard their voices and likenesses — and anyone else’s as nicely — from unauthorized electronic replication.”
Johansson, who voiced an innovative artificial intelligence chatbot in the 2013 film “Her,” said in a statement Monday that she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief” that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman “would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily very similar to mine that my closest close friends and news retailers could not inform the difference.”
She mentioned Altman contacted her in September and claimed he preferred to hire her to voice the GPT-4o system. She reported she finally declined his present.
“Two times in advance of the ChatGPT 4. demo was produced, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, inquiring me to rethink. Ahead of we could link, the process was out there,” she explained.
“I was pressured to retain the services of authorized counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, setting out what they experienced done and asking them to element the precise method by which they made the ‘Sky’ voice. For that reason, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the ‘Sky’ voice,” she mentioned.
In reaction to a ask for for remark Monday, Altman stated in a statement sent by a spokesperson that the voice of “Sky” was not intended to sound like Johansson and was chosen before he arrived at out to her past fall.
“The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was under no circumstances supposed to resemble hers,” Altman mentioned. “We cast the voice actor at the rear of Sky’s voice right before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of regard for Ms. Johansson, we have paused utilizing Sky’s voice in our goods. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t talk superior.”
In its assertion, SAG-AFTRA said it welcomed OpenAI’s final decision to strike pause on “Sky.”
“We are pleased that OpenAI has responded to these concerns and paused their use of ‘Sky,’ and we seem ahead to functioning with them and other market stakeholders to enshrine transparent and resilient protections for all of us,” it stated.
The rapid rise of voice imitation technologies has stoked rigorous stress about anything from political disinformation to innovative professionals’ efficiently getting rid of their livelihoods.
SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America went on strike final summertime in portion simply because of consternation in excess of the long term of generative AI in the amusement field, which include engineering that could substitute a performer’s likeness or voice.
In a news conference in July, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher warned that “artificial intelligence poses an existential menace to artistic professions.”
OpenAI drew criticism from other popular voices this week. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, mentioned on X on Monday evening that he uncovered it “alarming that an AI enterprise just appears to have gone forward and lifted a voice of an actual individual with out authorization or payment.”
“The impunity is even extra worrisome for performers who aren’t already well-liked,” the Democratic lawmaker additional. “The correct to one’s individual impression and voice should be secured.”
