The American actor says OpenAI built a virtual assistant with a voice that sounds “eerily similar” to her own voice — all without her permission.
Scarlett Johansson criticized OpenAI on Monday, saying the AI company went ahead and created a new chatbot voice that sounded “eerily similar” to her own, even though she declined to license her voice to the system.
“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,” Johansson wrote in a statement, published by NPR on Monday.
OpenAI showed-off GPT-4 Omni (GPT-4o), it’s latest AI model last Tuesday, in which the company demonstrated how it can verbally converse in even more human ways, complete with the ability to whisper, make sarcastic remarks, and even flirt.
The demonstration of OpenAI’s virtual assistant quickly drew comparisons to Johansson’s voice in the 2013 Hollywood drama “Her”. In that film, the American actress played the role of Samantha, a virtual assistant that develops an intimate relationship with a lonely writer.
All this led OpenAI to suspended the use of its AI voice called Sky, one of five voices available with GPT 4o, while is addresses questions.
