Her, For Real: Johansson vs OpenAI's Copycat Voice
Is this a scandal?
No longer — the story has resolved. Noise 1/100, cooling down, across 0 sources.
This incident will likely accelerate voice rights legislation. Expect more celebrities to proactively protect their vocal likeness through legal filings.
Noise 1/100 — louder than 89% of tracked AI controversies.
Key points
- Scarlett Johansson accused OpenAI of cloning her voice for Sky without consent
- OpenAI approached Johansson twice to voice ChatGPT, she declined both times
- Sky voice was pulled immediately after Johansson's legal threat
- Raised fundamental questions about AI voice cloning and celebrity rights
- OpenAI claimed Sky was voiced by a different actress
The story
When OpenAI demoed GPT-4o's "Sky" voice in May 2024, actress Scarlett Johansson accused the company of copying her voice without permission. Altman had tweeted "her" — a reference to the Spike Jonze film. OpenAI paused the voice amid legal threats.
Who's involved
Paused Sky voice and stated it was not based on Johansson
Noise Level
The timeline
OpenAI pauses Sky voice amid legal pressure
Company pulls the voice and Altman apologizes for poor communication
Scarlett Johansson accuses OpenAI of copying her voice
Johansson reveals she was approached to voice ChatGPT, declined, and hired lawyers
OpenAI demos Sky voice for GPT-4o
Altman tweets single word "her" referencing the Spike Jonze film about AI romance
The forecast
This incident will likely accelerate voice rights legislation. Expect more celebrities to proactively protect their vocal likeness through legal filings.
Forecast, not fact — an editorial estimate we score when this resolves.
That's the complete picture as of — nothing more to know right now. We'll update this page the moment it changes.
Join the Discussion
Discuss this story
Community comments coming in a future update
Be the first to share your perspective. Subscribe to comment.