Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson is “shocked” and “outraged” after OpenAI launched a chatbot with a voice “eerily similar” to her own, the BBC reports.
According to her, she previously rejected the company’s offer to voice a new chatbot that reads text out loud to users.
When a new chatbot model called Sky debuted last week, commentators were quick to draw comparisons between this chatbot's voice and Johansson's voice in the 2013 movie, She.
On Monday, OpenAI said it would remove the voice, but insisted it was not an "imitation" of the star's voice.
However, Johansson accused the company and its founder Sam Altman of deliberately copying her voice.
“When I heard the demo released, I was shocked, angry and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would use a voice that was so eerily similar to mine,” she wrote. "Mr. Altman even hinted that the similarity was intentional by tweeting the one word 'she' - a reference to the film in which I voiced chat system Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a person."
The actress said Altman initially approached her about voicing the new chatbot in September.
“[Mr. Altman] told me that he thought by voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers feel comfortable amid the seismic shift in people and AI,” Johansson wrote.
“He said he felt my voice would comfort people.” But she ultimately turned down the offer due to personal reasons.
She added that two days before the launch of the Sky chatbot, Altman contacted her agent and urged Johansson to reconsider her initial refusal to collaborate with the company.
“At a time when we are all fighting deepfakes and protecting our work, our individuality, I believe these issues deserve absolute clarity,” she wrote.
In a statement provided to the BBC by Open AI, Altman denied that the company was trying to imitate Johansson's voice.
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