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OpenAI pulls Johansson soundalike Sky’s voice from ChatGPT
- ChrisArchitect 2y ago[dupe] More discussion on official post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40412903 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40412903
- gyrovagueGeist 2y agoThey genuinely do not sound that similar to me
- maroonblazer 2y agoAgree. I watched "Her" recently and also "Under the Skin" so have SJ's voice in my working memory and Sky, while similar in some ways to SJ's voice, is different enough that this seems 100% defensible.
- helsinkiandrew 2y agohttps://archive.ph/EXl8X https://archive.ph/EXl8X
- chrisjj 2y ago> OpenAI is working to pause the use of the Sky voice from an audible version of ChatGPT after users said that it sounded too much like actress Scarlett Johansson. Uh?? How can any voice sound /too much/ like Scarlett Johansson? :)
- embik 2y agoWhy do tech companies keep using dystopian stories as manuals? The flirty tone, the voice being awfully similar to the lead actress of Her. Next we are getting Ex Machina?
- yen223 2y agoI don't recall Her being a dystopian movie
- blowski 2y agoI suppose it depends on your own perspective. For my part, a world in which people "date" algorithms instead of other human beings certainly seems pretty dystopian.
- qarl 2y agoTrue. But in the story, the algorithms are better humans than the humans, so it wasn't actually a bad thing.
- lotsoweiners 2y agoI could probably buy a realistic sex doll that looks better than the girls that would date me but I’d rather hump the real thing.
- qarl 2y agoHEH... ok? I'm not sure that's relevant. The question is - does a human developing a relationship with a post-human sentience make the story automatically dystopian? Seems to be you'd have to be pretty prejudiced against AI to say "yes".
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- more_corn 2y ago
- luke-stanley 2y agoBreaking working functionality is not cool. Sure they should perhaps license from Scarlett Johansson directly though. It might cost 1% of their GPU budget though. Pulling the rug though, really gives end users a lack of control of the interface, and harms trust in their product and organisation. Edit: I know it's not really Scarlett Johansson, but it does sound very similar, and they can do better to make it right, in terms of sound and legality!
- sorenjan 2y ago> really gives end users a lack of control of the interface This is the case for all mobile and web apps and has been the norm for over a decade now. If you want control over the UI or functionality, use local software that doesn't check some server for feature flags. Even if Scarlett Johansson would agree to license her voice, which is a big if, it's not her voice that's being removed. It's a different actress that some users thinks sounds like Scarlett. https://openai.com/index/how-the-voices-for-chatgpt-were-chosen/ https://openai.com/index/how-the-voices-for-chatgpt-were-cho...
- luke-stanley 2y agoI'm pointing out that it harms OpenAI to make users feel this way, I know it's common to give users a lack of control these days and that edge LLM's are not viable for this yet, and good luck with third party ChatGPT clients etc! I'm not saying it's her voice. I'm not disputing that they found someone with a similar sounding voice. But OpenAI should still aim to license from Scarlett Johansson and fine-tune on real licensed audio from her, the real deal, and let users switch to it if they want to.
- catchnear4321 2y ago> Breaking working functionality is not cool. if your product relied on temu scarjo, you never had a product.
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoHow is changing a voice recording breaking functionality?
- a_bouncing_bean 2y agoStrange, I didn't hear it, now I can see the resemblance, but doesn't seem like a big deal. It was the only voice I really used. I wonder if Spotify will follow, with their sound-a-like Ice-T voice?
- blitzo 2y agoThey know what they're doing. No way this is not intentional. It's work and they got free publicity.
- RockyMcNuts 2y agoWhen I heard it, I thought, wow, they licensed Scarlett Johansson, what an amazing Easter egg. If they didn't and just cloned her voice, it's more disregard for creators and artists than I would have thought possible. What were they thinking? Edit after reading the official story... not sure I believe it, seems disingenuous, at best they chose someone because they really really sounded like Scarlett Johansson, and no one said, it might be a problem. https://openai.com/index/how-the-voices-for-chatgpt-were-chosen/ https://openai.com/index/how-the-voices-for-chatgpt-were-cho...
- iamsaitam 2y agoThey cannot disclose the identity of the person involved in order to protect their privacy. This is a very convenient cloak, leaving no way to know if they cloned Scarlet Johansson's voice or if it's from someone else.
- anon373839 2y agoFortunately for Scarlett, she can just sue them and force them to tell her. She also isn’t shy to litigate. I was surprised that Sam wanted to poke that particular beehive.
- fooqux 2y agoI know trademark litigation is wishy-washy, but can she even claim her voice is unique enough to claim some form of infringement? If I just happen to sound like her, am I a walking infringement? Voices such as Shatner or Walken are at least as much about speech patterns than the voice, giving you another axis to compare voices against, so I can somewhat see those as being trademarkable. But when I hear the ChatGPT voice, it just sounds like "slightly-flirty generic female voice 03" to me.
- bonton89 2y agoMicrosoft once sued a high school kid named Mike Rowe for trademark infringement for having a website mikerowesoft.com so anything is possible.
- gloryjulio 2y agoIt's ironic that she was in a movie called Her as an Ai
- skrebbel 2y agoThat was the point. OpenAI is pretty good at marketing.
- iamsaitam 2y agoThis was a very low hanging fruit.
- gloryjulio 2y agoHard to imagine they would stoop so low a few years ago
- lawn 2y agoNow its just expected.
- Mountain_Skies 2y agoWonder if there's any legal risk here. It's long been legal to imitate someone's voice as long as you don't try to make people think it really is that person's voice. This is very common in parodies. In the case of computer-generated voices, there are qualities that are desirable that also happen to be attributes of a real person's voice. How many of these desirable attributes can a computer-generated voice have before it's considered too close to the set of attributes a particular person's voice has?
- verdverm 2y agoYes, celebrities generally own the rights to use their likeness for commercial purposes or promotions.
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoHow are voice likeness verified? Half this thread is people saying they don't sound alike, who can tell officially? Real question. Is there some waveform comparison that a court would accept?
- probably_wrong 2y agoIMHO a court would accept a waveform comparison that proved beyond all doubt that the two voices are similar, but I doubt you'd find a court that would settle the issue just because the comparison said no. The cases brought forth by Marvin Gaye's family [1] showed that some judges will declare copyright infringement even if the melody, harmony and rhythm are different. Note that the author saying he reverse-engineered the original song in question probably had something to do with it, so in the end intent and artistic perception will always remain factors that no computer function can compute. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharrell_Williams_v._Bridgeport_Music https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharrell_Williams_v._Bridgep...
- aaron695 2y agoDoesn't sound anything like Scarlet Johansson - https://x.com/AngelinaPTech/status/1741450012314280431/video/1 https://x.com/AngelinaPTech/status/1741450012314280431/video... Her - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij0ZmgG6wCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij0ZmgG6wCA If it was a soundalike then it would be a legal issue obviously, nothing to discuss. Looking at the HN comments they are told it sounds like Her so that's what they believe. So you can't trust the NPC's to decide, they just regurgitate media headlines. How do you quantify it?
- floydnoel 2y agoi agree, doesn't sound anything like Her to me.
- qarl 2y agoI dunno - I think I'm a pretty normal person, and I thought they sound extremely similar. I thought it was pretty obviously intentional.
- pks016 2y agoIt doesn't sound that similar in the twitter video. But I have tried many times. It does sound similar to me. Ask her to recite poetry with natural pauses and expression.
- jes5199 2y agohuh, I listened to those and I feel like they're fairly similar, obviously the _Her_ scene is more emotional which distorts the comparison somewhat
- icee 2y agoIt doesn’t sound like Her.
- sanex 2y agoIf it actually sounded like her I'd have been using it.
- xyst 2y agoI wonder if we will see these headlines: “Florida person finds loophole in system to marry ChatGPT voice assistant” “ClosedAI back peddles controversial decision to ‘lobotomize’ voice assistance after widespread dislike” “It is now legal to marry 3D printed humans with AGI in these 25 states” “Florida person initiates divorce with ChatGPT, claims 50% stake of OpenAI. Florida state courts open to it. OpenAI tumbles at market open by 11%”
- decremental 2y ago[dead]
- verticalscaler 2y agoLook we both know it is Florida man not Florida person in them future headlines and ain't no way the legal system in this brave new world is giving a dude half in the AI divorce.
- oldpersonintx 2y ago[dead]
- baryphonic 2y agoI'll be honest, I don't hear a close similarity. If I were to pick a celebrity, I'd say it sounds more like Rashida Jones, though Rashida's voice is slightly higher.
- qgin 2y agoIt’s hard to say it wasn’t intentional after this tweet: https://x.com/sama/status/1790075827666796666 https://x.com/sama/status/1790075827666796666 > her And this one: https://x.com/prafdhar/status/1790789900650037441 https://x.com/prafdhar/status/1790789900650037441 > @alex_conneau: came up with the vision of HER before anyone at OpenAI had, and executed relentlessly!
- replwoacause 2y ago@alex_conneau's twitter header has a screenshot from HER right smack dab on his profile
- 38 2y agoWarning X breaks the back button on my browser, for fucks sake
- QuantumGood 2y agoHold shift (new window) or control (new tab) when you click.
- 38 2y agoOn mobile...
- lacksconfidence 2y agolong tap, open in new tab
- 38 2y agoWhoosh
- QuantumGood 2y agopress down and hold (long tap) choose from options that appear
- ilikehurdles 2y agoShame they’re pulling Sky. It is the only voice I could tolerate in chats. Also I agree with the others who don’t hear the resemblance. How much of these complaints actually come from users? This saga seems very media-driven.
- brianjking 2y agoArchive: https://archive.is/EXl8X https://archive.is/EXl8X
- jakeinspace 2y agoThe similarity to Johansson feels more like a cover for the actual complaints I’ve seen, which are that the voice is far too breathy and flirtatious. It made the demo videos, with somewhat dorky men being complimented on their dress and whatnot, pretty damn uncomfortable. They either should have toned down the flirtation, or else added a more suave and seductive masculine voice to at least balance things out.
- solardev 2y agoProbably not long before it can just generate voices however you like them best.
- th0ma5 2y agoThis is the actual problem. It is highly misogynistic and the comments here and elsewhere show how many people actually demand it.
- baobabKoodaa 2y agoHow is it misogynistic?
- Art9681 2y agoDon't waste your time. No one can reason their way out of something they didnt reason their way into in the first place. A lot of people spent way more time than that individual thinking about what would appeal to the generic customer. And it so happens that regardless of gender, sexual preference, and pretty much anything else you can think of, humans prefer to look at human women and also prefer their voices over human men. And this is unlikely to change, ever, no matter how much they disagree with it, if history is anything to go by. Let someone else swim against the tide if they feel like that's the best use of their time.
- solardev 2y agoI had no idea they sounded alike, not really knowing (or caring) what Scarlett sounds like. I didn't think her voice was part of her celebrity status... However, I did prefer Sky above the other voices. It didn't come across as seductive or flirty to me, just something that sounded close to the Google Assistant or Alexa. "Neutrally approachable" is how I'd put it, like a good receptionist, a mix of casual warmth and surface level concern. Shrug. I hope they bring her back soon.
- __rito__ 2y agoYes. Sky voice was perfect. It was neither robot-y nor flirty. I preferred it always.
- atherton33 2y ago> I didn't think her voice was part of her celebrity status She did the voice for Her, a movie about an AI voice. If you check IMDB she's literally credited as "(voice)". Specifically in the realm of AI, her voice is her entire celebrity status.
- kamikaz1k 2y ago> her entire celebrity status I mean…if you check the IMDB page you’ll see she’s done a lot more than that…and is known widely for her role as Black Widow in the Avengers movie series. So, I think she’s got more to her status than “the voice”. I’m sure you were trying to say in this OpenAI voice rights context, but I think it’s important to consider she is indeed a bonafide not-just-a-voice A-list Hollywood Celebrity.
- 3836293648 2y agoYou can't cut off the qualifying first half of the sentence and then complain that the second half isn't qualified. Come on...
- A_non_e-moose 2y agoIn female AI voice we seem to have encountered the overlap between your typical simp and corpo simp. Funny thing is, when an attractive female goes against a corp... the simps picked the corp... we are well off into a Blade Runner 2 digital girlfriend scenario aren't we? If any enterprising soul wants to join up and start selling chatGPT enabled anime body pillows, DM me, I have a supplier ready.
- Heidaradar 2y agoHonestly, I thought it sounded a bit like her initially but I don't like her voice anyway. I thought it sounded awful in Her.
- dbsmith83 2y ago> We’ve heard questions about how we chose the voices in ChatGPT, especially Sky. We are working to pause the use of Sky while we address them. Why? They take it for granted that there is obviously something wrong here. Are users actually concerned about this? I think most people would not care. Is this just manufactured for the exposure? Is this just another example of OpenAI's condescending moral superiority complex?
- browningstreet 2y agoAre you missing the possibility that Scarlett might care?
- dbsmith83 2y agoPossibly, but that is not what their statement suggests to me, unless those 'questions' came from her/her legal team. I suppose they could also be worried about future legal action from her. Maybe it just isn't worth getting sued, even if you technically did nothing wrong. But I also have a hard time believing they went thru this careful process of voice selection and it never occurred to them that the voice sounded like her, and didn't think about the legal repercussions https://openai.com/index/how-the-voices-for-chatgpt-were-chosen/ https://openai.com/index/how-the-voices-for-chatgpt-were-cho...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rakoo 2y ago> But I also have a hard time believing they went thru this careful process of voice selection and it never occurred to them that the voice sounded like her, and didn't think about the legal repercussions You do know the whole modus operandi of AI companies is "screw laws, take it all we'll see what happens" right ? That they actively lobby to not respect IP laws because they couldn't exist if they were enforced ? That they do not care about the negative impact they might have on anything ? I'm no proponent of IP myself but I don't take from others to redistribute for my sole profit.
- hackernoteng 2y agoThe Sky voice was obviously flirtatious sounding. It was actually very cringy and embarrassing for OpenAI, and it seemed really like a jump the shark moment TBH
- qarl 2y agoI agree that the Sky voice is flirtatious. But I'd also argue that flirtatiousness is a very good match for the character of Samatha in "Her" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV01B5kVsC0&t=84s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV01B5kVsC0&t=84s
- d13 2y agoIt was in the demo, but not in the current tts implementation, where it is very neutral.
- honestduane 2y agoThe Sky voice sounded nothing like Scarlet Johansson. I'm worried that in the future somebody might try to create their own voice to regain it as an accessibility tool after a medical event, and they're going to have their voice literally stolen from them under the fact that it might sound like another famous person 90% of the time. In the music industry it's actually a known thing that if somebody famous sounds like you, you basically have no real ability to become a star or sell your music without problems. Sure it happens, but it's honestly the same problem many actors that look alike go through but just with sound. This is pure censorship/money grab, and to make it worse, the voices sounded nothing alike.
- stubish 2y agoThe original voice that they pulled or the one they replaced it with under the same name after the lawyers started calling?
- fragmede 2y agoApple shipped that as an accessibility feature in 2023 https://support.apple.com/en-us/104993 https://support.apple.com/en-us/104993
- tomtom1337 2y agoWow! I'd not noticed this before! Thanks for sharing!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- im3w1l 2y ago> Your speech is processed securely on device overnight while your device is charging and connected to Wi-Fi. Neat
- blitzar 2y agothey tweeted that it is "her"
- projectileboy 2y agoIt is incredibly disheartening to see what was born a non-profit dedicated to guiding AI towards beneficial (or at the very least neutral) ends, to predictably fall into the well-worn SV groove of progressively shittier behavior in the pursuit of additional billions. What is victory for Open AI even supposed to look like by now?
- ecjhdnc2025 2y agoI may be incredibly shallow but personally I am experiencing feelings of joy and validation. Every time I tried to suggest that maybe, LLMs and GAN tools don't make creativity easier but lazier and emptier or that this technology area is parasitic off human culture, every time an OpenAI junkie told me, "hey, perhaps humans aren't much different from LLMs", or someone said artists are derivative too and don't really deserve any more protections or are "gatekeeping art"... ... my anger at the time is vindicated every time these greedy, cynical wretches that the US tech industry has raced to anoint are taken down a peg because of their own very obvious greed and expedience. I am loving this. I may also be shallow in feeling a measure of glee that Microsoft is racing forward to shoehorn this utter toxicity into every corner of their product range, just in time for their customers to fully understand how it reeks of contempt for them.
- santoshalper 2y agoNothing wrong with a little schadenfreude.
- zarmin 2y agoThis is a sentiment I'm starting to see more of, and have really started internalizing in recent months. For every creative task I've given an LLM in the last 2 years, if I cared at all about the output, I ended up redoing it myself by hand. Even with the most granular of instructions, the output feels like a machine wrote it. I have yet to meet anyone who felt any kind of emotion from generated art, except for "wow, it's cool that AI can make this". That's because (imo) art comes from experience, and experiencing is absolutely not what LLMs do. Meanwhile, my dad, whose AI experience amounts to using MS Copilot "two or three times," is sending me articles about Devin, and how it's over for software engineers.
- owenpalmer 2y ago> The voices are part of OpenAI’s updated GPT-4o This is false. The TTS conversation feature has been out for quite a while.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 2y agoWorks where archive.ph is blocked: 2024-05-20T07:16:23.679Z OpenAI to Pull Johansson Soundalike Sky's Voice From ChatGPT OpenAI is working to pause the use of the Sky voice from an audible version of ChatGPT after users said that it sounded too much like actress Scarlett Johansson. The company said that the voice, one of five available on ChatGPT, was from an actress and was not chosen to be an "imitation" of Johansson, according to a blog post.^1 Johansson played a fictional virtual assistant in the film Her, about a man who falls in love with an AI system. The voices are part of OpenAI's updated GPT-4o, which debuted earlier this month and can reply to verbal questions from users with an audio response. 1. https://openai.com/index/how-the-voices-for-chatgpt-were-chosen/ https://openai.com/index/how-the-voices-for-chatgpt-were-cho... Maybe I have missed something. Is this really the fulltext of the "article"??
- rogerdox14 2y agoVarious Internet sources claim Rashida Jones sounds a lot like Scarlett Johansson: could Rashida Jones have voiced ‘Sky’?
- aaroninsf 2y agoOnce I saw that suggestion I cannot un-hear it. It's much closer to RJ than SJ... MUCH much closer. Enough that if it's not her, I'll be genuinely surprised.
- anticensor 2y agoThey should replace it with Mira Murati's voice for the female one, and Grek Brockman's voice for the male one.
- goertzen 2y agoThe math here is pretty simple. OpenAI clearly wants the “her” association. It’s already the favourite voice and projects many of the existing and imagined capabilities really well. So they tried to pay for it, but it was either too expensive or blocked by SJ. Her/teams comments read like a negotiation. But I suspect they’ve overplayed their hand. At best they may get a settlement and OpenAI will modify the voice to make it sound less like SJ.
- vishalontheline 2y agoThey will gain more users than they will lose including many of the people who are so outraged by this, because, there's no such thing as bad publicity.
- Havoc 2y agoThe Voice still works on my app?