Scarlett Johansson 'shocked' by AI chatbot imitation | BBC News

Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson has said she was left "shocked" and "angered" after OpenAI launched a chatbot with an "eerily similar" voice to her own.

The actress said she had previously turned down an approach by the company to voice its new chatbot, which reads text aloud to users.

When the new model debuted last week commentators were quick to draw comparisons between the chatbot's "Sky" voice and Johansson's in the 2013 film Her.

OpenAI said on Monday that it would remove the voice, but insisted that it was not meant to be an "imitation" of the star.

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[markmd]

It may be similar but it not the same.
There are thousands of people that have similar voices.

[georgyfontaine]

How can Scarlett Johansson know that she is the only woman on earth that has a voice like Scarlett Johansson?

[mhjunky]

More irish reporter bbc, we love her voice

[Thekhajjah]

Not a fan on AI or ms Johansen, but it seems a voice similarity is a bit of an overreach intended or not.

[sunflower]

I do not believe Sam Altman. He posted "her" which is the name of the movie Scarlet was in. Very fishy!

[turnleft]

All I know is that if Samuel L Jackson had voiced the AI, I would set my morning alarm to be *"wake up mothe****!!"* 😂

[arispoli]

This report isn’t entirely accurate. The original SKY voice in GPT app prior to last week defo sounded like Scarlett. The voice was enhanced to create more emotion for GPT-4o. At this time Altman reached out to SJ for use age permission and she declined. He used it anyway. SJs people finally released a statement for max exposure after the 4o demo. Immediately GPT paused the voice and changed the underlying vocal traits.

[Gementa]

ChatGPT doesn't even sound like Scarlett Johansson's voice and I say this as someone who is a fan of Scarlett and watch a lot of her movies.

[kkmardigrce]

Like a 100 million people hasve a voice similar to Scarlet. WTF?!

[Aggielife]

When she made that movie over 10 years ago, I bet she had no idea that in a decade, it would come true!

[jimmy]

Everything in the world isnt about you Scarlett.

[RaphaelChan]

If they had a voice model train it, they could easily use the voice model to testify and prove it wasn't Scarlet....

[Omnicient.]

The voice sounds like millions upon millions of other young women. As many stars drift off into the world of the entitled personality they become precious. I'd like to hope she would instead draw attention to world events.

[vsznry]

They probably based it off her role in that Joaquin Phoenix film .

[Statsy]

I would absolutely not have thought that was Scarlett Johansson's voice.

[SadieDLdn]

How are some people in the comments not hearing how similar the voice is? If I heard it I would instantly think it was her. And the fact that the job had been offered to her.

[ricolasbest]

Such non sense! There are millions of other people sounded just like her. OpenAI should keep the Sky voice and not let her bullied the tech industries.

[Aloddff]

So cringe not just stealing her voice, but flirting with that AI on stage for half an hour with horrible dad jokes.

He programmed a fake woman to laugh at his bad jokes

[thisismetoday]

That dude is so creepy. How are these guys given so much power is what I wanna know!??

[pjlav]

The AI has a similar cadence and slight husk at the beginning and end of the words but Scarlett's voice isn't as "light" and bright as the AI. Scarlett has a a bridged earthy quality to her voice.