Sam Altman denies ChatGPT’s Sky voice is Scarlett Johansson

OpenAI founder Sam Altman claimed in a statement that the voice heard on the app known as Sky is not Scarlett Johansson and said that his office reached out to her reps while also conceding that he could have ‘communicated better.’

His remarks came after Johansson issued her own statement in which she said that her lawyers have written letters to Altman and OpenAI over the voice which she says sounds ‘eerily simliar’ to her own. 

The Oscar-nominated star has become synonymous with AI voicing thanks to her role as Joaquin Phoenix’s robotic romantic partner in the 2013 movie Her. When Altman even tweeted the word ‘her’ around the time that Sky was launched.

The voice heard on Sky is a different professional actress, Altman said earlier. In his latest statement, he confirmed that ChatGPT has ‘paused using Sky’s voice in our products.’ 

‘We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better,’ the statement concluded. 

In November 2023, when Altman was temporarily ousted from his own company for a time, a statement said his removal was due to his ‘not [being] consistently candid in his communications.’ Altman returned to ChatGPT as CEO days after he was fired. 

‘The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson,’ Altman also said.

The fight over rights to actors’ voices and images has become a focus in Hollywood as studios consider how to use AI to create new entertainment and as the computer-produced images and sounds become difficult to distinguish from those of humans.

Johansson in the statement said Altman had approached her last September and offered to hire her to voice a ChatGPT voice — an offer she declined.

‘Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me,’ she said.

‘When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference.’ 

OpenAI showed of its newest AI model, called GPT-4o, last week, with audio capabilities that let users speak to the chatbot and obtain real-time responses, marking a significant advancement in more realistic sounding AI conversations. 

The voice Johansson claims was akin to her own, titled ‘Sky,’ was one of five voices OpenAI made available last fall, according to The Washington Post, which added that the company suspended the voice being used as of Sunday.

The company said in a blog that it had trained voices for the audio option of its more developed AI program, and compensated voice actors with ‘above top-of-market rates’ for their work in the program. 

SChatGPT users found that some interactions with Sky were bizarrely flirtations. In one video posted by OpenAI, a female-voiced ChatGPT compliments a company employee on ‘rocking an OpenAI hoodie.’

In another the chatbot says ‘oh stop it, you’re making me blush’ after being told that it’s amazing.

‘This is clearly programmed to feed dudes’ egos,’ The Daily Show senior correspondent Desi Lydic said in a segment last week. ‘You can really tell that a man built this tech.’

OpenAI first rolled out voice capabilities for ChatGPT, which included the five different voices, in September, allowing users to engage in back-to-forth conversation with the AI assistant.

‘Voice Mode’ was originally just available to paid subscribers, but in November, OpenAI announced that the feature would become free for all users with the mobile app.  

And ChatGPT’s interactions are becoming more and more sophisticated. Last week, OpenAI said the latest update to its generative AI model can mimic human cadences in its verbal responses and can even try to detect people’s moods.

OpenAI says the newest model, dubbed GPT-4o, works faster than previous versions and can reason across text, audio and video in real time.

In a demonstration during OpenAI’s May 13 announcement, the AI bot chatted in real time, adding emotion – specifically ‘more drama’ – to its voice as requested.

It also took a stab at extrapolating a person’s emotional state by looking at a selfie video of their face, aided in language translations, step-by-step math problems and more.

GPT-4o, short for ‘omni,’ isn’t widely available yet. It will progressively make its way to select users in the coming weeks and months. The model’s text and image capabilities have already begun rolling out, and is set to reach even some of those that use ChatGPT’s free tier – but the new voice mode will just be available for paid subscribers of ChatGPT Plus.

While most have yet to get their hands on these newly announced features, the capabilities have conjured up even more comparisons to the Spike Jonze’s dystopian romance ‘Her.’

 Johansson and her spouse, Saturday Night Live personality Colin Jost, 41, are parents to son Cosmo, two. The actress is also mother to daughter Rose Dauriac, nine, with ex-husband Romain Dauriac, 42.

In the recent SNL finale, Jost unwittingly made a joke about he AI voice controversy. A tradition on the segment that Jost shares with Michael Che sees the pair read out jokes that they have never seen before.  

The idea is, of course, to give each other fun jokes, almost supportive jokes that would never ruin our summer or our career,’ Colin ominously. 

‘ChatGPT has released a new voice assistant feature inspired by Scarlett Johansson’s AI character in Her,’ Colin began.

‘Which I’ve never bothered to watch because without that body, what’s the point of listening?’

At that, Jost lowered his head and covered his face in embarrassment.