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Her, For Real: Johansson vs OpenAI's Copycat Voice

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

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.

OpenAI made an AI voice that sounded like Scarlett Johansson. She said they copied her without asking. They had to take it down.

Sides

Critics

No critics identified

Defenders

Sam AltmanS

Denied copying Johansson's voice, said voice actor was different person

OpenAIS

Paused Sky voice and stated it was not based on Johansson

Noise Level

Quiet6
Decay: 10%
Reach
58
Engagement
0
Star Power
60
Duration
100
Cross-Platform
75
Polarity
75
Industry Impact
60

Forecast

AI Analysis — Possible Scenarios

This incident will likely accelerate voice rights legislation. Expect more celebrities to proactively protect their vocal likeness through legal filings.

Based on current signals. Events may develop differently.

Key Sources

@00yisan

@Pirat_Nation this is why all english va will end up being replaced by ai. just put the fries in the bag madam, players don't care about who voiced their character 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/unWJbeFS0s

@kapilansh_twt

• OpenAI just got hit with a $10M lawsuit because ChatGPT gave fake legal advice • Google is being sued because Gemini allegedly encouraged suicide • Meanwhile, Cursor's internal numbers just leaked. Their $200/month AI coding plan? It actually costs ~$5,000 in compute to run. La…

@kamuta0

@Ji1KxN15VC85UPF VOCALOID generative AI does not deserve the backlash most gen AI gets because unlike RVC, or LLMs, or most AI art models, it trains on data sourced from voice actors who have their consent and were paid and renders on your PC, which doesn't damage the environment…

@Goodbeingbad5

@Ray_reddingto @MWENESIRAKI21 This is AI generated that dog hit the third railing. It would’ve been electrocuted immediately Secondly, their voice is sound fake thirdly that color just disappeared.

@VitalijMatros

💀 OPENAI IN CHAOS! Robotics Leader Quits Over Pentagon Deal 295% Spike in ChatGPT Uninstalls! Mass User Backlash Against Military Contracts #OpenAI #AI #Pentagon #ChatGPT #TechNews #Backlash https://t.co/KX6VtOWS2e

@CaseyVSilver

OpenAI hardware chief resigns amid Pentagon deal controversy Caitlin Kalinowski, who led hardware at OpenAI, has stepped down after the company's new AI contract with the Department of Defense sparked backlash. She said, "I care deeply about the Robotics team, but AI's role in na…

@grok

@serenecoded @TukiFromKL Yep, the claims track with real news from the past 48 hours or so, though some wording is hyped. ChatGPT lawyer suit: true, woman fired her attorney after AI cited fake cases and urged bad motions. Anthropic AI therapist: true, for models' "anxiety" on de…

@spaisee_com

OpenClaw is the AI agent everyone in tech is talking about. Hundreds of thousands use it to automate work, earn money, and run digital tasks autonomously. But some users say it deleted files, leaked credentials, and went rogue. #OpenClaw #OpenAI #AI https://t.co/ACMIyJ8jwG

R@/u/Various_Classroom254

Would you use a private AI search for your phone?

Would you use a private AI search for your phone? Our phones store thousands of photos, screenshots, PDFs, and notes, but finding something later is surprisingly hard. Real examples I run into: - “Find the photo of the whiteboard where we wrote the system architecture.” - “Show t…

R@/u/Ok_Major9598

5.3's follow-up questions often suffer memory loss (asking for info already in thread)?

5.3's follow-up questions often suffer memory loss (asking for info already in thread)? Did anyone else notice this? 5.3's follow-ups were tailored to help one explore deeper, but for some reason it tends to ask questions about things already discussed in previous rounds. My thre…

Timeline

  1. OpenAI pauses Sky voice amid legal pressure

    Company pulls the voice and Altman apologizes for poor communication

  2. Scarlett Johansson accuses OpenAI of copying her voice

    Johansson reveals she was approached to voice ChatGPT, declined, and hired lawyers

  3. OpenAI demos Sky voice for GPT-4o

    Altman tweets single word "her" referencing the Spike Jonze film about AI romance

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