ChatGPT’s Sky entry, accused of imitating Scarlett Johansson, is suspended by OpenAI. The company denies intentionality, but decides to remove it anyway.
OpenAI announced the retirement of the ChatGPT entry known as Sky, after numerous articles and even Saturday Night Live they highlighted the striking resemblance to Scarlett Johansson’s voice. The decision comes despite OpenAI saying the similarity was unintentional.
The voice of Sky and Scarlett Johansson
Sky voice was introduced as part of the new ChatGPT voice features, intended to make interacting with AI more natural and engaging. However, the resemblance to the voice of actress Scarlett Johansson has raised a lot of controversy. “We believe that AI voices should not deliberately imitate a celebrity’s distinctive voice – Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a professional actress using her natural voice,” OpenAI wrote in a statement.
OpenAI CTO, Mira Murati, he denied that the imitation was intentional in an interview with The Verge last week. While Johansson’s voice wasn’t directly referenced, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman already seemed aware of her resemblance, posting her Her’s message on X (formerly Twitter) after her discovery. Altman has previously said that “Her,” the Spike Jonze film in which Scarlett Johansson voices a virtual assistant, is her favorite film.
Legal problems coming?
OpenAI did not mention whether it has received contact regarding potential legal issues or challenges related to the similarity of its assistant’s voice to Johansson’s or her role in “Her.” However, the decision to withdraw Sky’s voice it may have been taken to prevent any legal dispute.
ChatGPT voice mode and Sky voice model were introduced last year. However, the feature became much more prominent last week, when OpenAI demonstrated the progress achieved as part of the new GPT-4o model. The new model makes the voice assistant more expressive and allows it to read facial expressions through the phone’s camera and translate spoken language in real time.
The five entries currently available for ChatGPT have been selected from over 400 applications by voice actors and film actors, according to OpenAI. The company declined to share the names of the actors, citing the need to “protect their privacy”.
#OpenAI #removed #Scarlett #Johanssonlike #entry #ChatGPT
