Scarlett Johansson is suing OpenAI – claims it used her voice without permission
The Hollywood actress says she was approached by OpenAI in the past but turned their offer down to voice the company's chatbot
🧑⚖️ OpenAI is being sued by Scarlett Johansson
🤔 The actress believes the company used her voice to develop “Sky”
🤖 Sky is one of the company’s voice assistants
🙇♂️ OpenAI denies the claim and has removed the voice from its products
OpenAI is facing another lawsuit, this time from the Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson.
The AI company is already being sued by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has accused OpenAI of pursuing profit instead of the great good. But it’s the OpenAI’s new ChatGPT-4o model that has landed it in hot water with Johansson.
Johansson said that OpenAI had previously asked her to be the voice behind ChatGPT nine months ago but declined. But that seemingly didn’t stop OpenAI from creating a voice assistant that sounds awfully similar to Scarlett Johansson, which has led to the actress being “forced to hire legal counsel”.
You can read Scarlett Johansson's full statement below:
“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system. He 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. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.
After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer. Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named “Sky” sounded like me.
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 that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference. Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word “her” - a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human.
Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was out there.
As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the “Sky” voice. Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the “Sky” voice.
In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity. I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”
Johansson’s lawyers have sent OpenAI two letters asking how the company created its voice model dubbed “Sky”, according to NPR, and it’s led to OpenAI issuing a denial and removing the voice from its products.
In a statement provided to The Verge, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said: “The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”
It doesn’t help OpenAI’s case that Sam Altman posted the word “her” on X, shortly after the company’s voice demo. Altman has also previously shared that ‘Her’ is his favorite film. The film sees Joaquin Phoenix fall in love with an AI assistant voiced by Scarlett Johannson, and many made the comparison after the ChatGPT-4o demo to the 2013 flick.
As per Johansson’s statement, the actress is asking for transparency and potential legislation to protect individual rights in the future. We’ll have to see how the lawsuit develops.
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.