41 ms·

Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

• goosejuice 2y ago
  I always figured it was Bari Weiss. Still do. She released an interview with Altman in May of 2023 and Sky was released in September 2023 as far as I know. Given that connection, I think it's plausible. They have a similar voice and given Bari's experience in podcasting could be a sensible choice if OpenAI wanted Scarlett but couldn't make it happen.
• pietrod 2y ago
  company should be renamed OpenDrama, can't stop producing news like this
• rib3ye 2y ago
  I went and listened to the Sky demos on YouTube and frankly it doesn’t sounds anything like her.
• causality0 2y ago
  I'm sure Jen Taylor would be open to an offer.
  • minimaxir 2y ago
    Cortana on Windows is indeed already voiced by Jen Taylor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortana_(virtual_assistant) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortana_(virtual_assistant)
    • causality0 2y ago
      That's what I was referencing. That, and the fact Microsoft has given up on Cortana so she's probably free.
• alsodumb 2y ago
  Why do I feel like Sam's 'her' tweet pretty much gave Scarlett Johansson's legal counsel all the ammo they needed lol.
  • CharlesW 2y ago
    Also, it shows that today’s blog post was fiction.
    • crimsoneer 2y ago
      The sky voice they took down has existed for more than a year. It's different to the new demo that kicked this all off.
      • CharlesW 2y ago
        The voice didn’t change, just the ability of the model to “output laughter, singing, or express emotion”.
  • elevatedastalt 2y ago
    It probably made things worse, but the fact that they reached out to her to use her voice and she explicitly refused would be sufficient ammo I feel. (Not a lawyer of course). Of course, Twitter continues to bring people with big egos to their own downfall.
    • not2b 2y ago
      Not to mention that it matches up pretty much exactly with the Bette Midler and Tom Waits cases, where courts ruled against companies using soundalikes after the person they really wanted turned them down. Doesn't matter if they hired a soundalike actress rather than clone her voice, it still violates her rights.
      • cortesoft 2y ago
        I am guessing this is only because they first tried to hire the originals before hiring sound-alikes... otherwise, would it mean that if your voice sounds similar to someone else, you can't do voice work?
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• fareesh 2y ago
  am I wrong to think this was the plan all along? mainstream adoption hasn't been that great - now there's drama
  • heyoni 2y ago
    You can read that tweet?
• dheera 2y ago
  What are the chances that among 7 billion people in the world that there are always going to be 100 people that sound like you? If Sam Altman was going for a particular voice, there are probably 100 people that indistinguishably have that voice and it just becomes a question of a headhunt.
  • guhidalg 2y ago
    One word: "Her"
  • robbomacrae 2y ago
    That's precisely what they did with Doodle God to imitate Morgan Freeman [0] and how James Veich deep faked David Attenborough in his PLnaT eRth video [1]. [0]: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/07/20/how-the-doodle-god-universe-revamp-made-its-way-to-apple-arcade/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/07/20/how-the-doodle-god-un... [1]: https://youtu.be/-CopbQ_QgmM?si=gkbWEva_qqG8dTib&t=205 https://youtu.be/-CopbQ_QgmM?si=gkbWEva_qqG8dTib&t=205
  • karaterobot 2y ago
    Trying to imitate her voice to get around paying her wouldn't be okay either. Waits vs. Frito Lay taught us that, if nothing else did. The question is whether people would think they were hearing Scarlett Johansson's voice when using that product, and the answer is yes, so they have to pay her to trade on her identity.
• ClassyJacket 2y ago
  Since Microsoft has given up on her, they should hire Jen Taylor and do almost-Cortana.
• heyoni 2y ago
  Deleted?
  • jaykru 2y ago
    Try another browser; I wasn't able to open it on Librewolf (Firefox fork.)
    • heyoni 2y ago
      I’m on safari on iPhone though I do use the safari extension for adblocking…
• PixelPaul 2y ago
  I am really not liking this Sam guy and how he does things. He has an attitude of “my way and only my way, and I don’t care what you think or do”
  • oglop 2y ago
    That’s all successful tech companies out of Silicon Valley. It is a silly place.
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    • dylan604 2y ago
      On second thought, let's not go there. It's not just successful companies though. There is a bit of ego necessary in a founder that makes them think their idea or their implementation of a thing is better so that it needs to be its own company. Sometimes though they even get caught up in their own reality distortion fields with obviously bad ideas or ideas implemented badly due to their own arrogance that ultimately fails.
  • aeurielesn 2y ago
    Him and pretty much the entire SV culture.
    • talldayo 2y ago
      Relax guys, he's Open! Open for business, Open to suggestions, and Open season for any lawyers that want a piece of the sizable damages.
  • dylan604 2y ago
    This is pretty much quintessential founder behavior. I have had my run-ins with people like this, and the relationship is usually short lived. I do not drink the kool-aid, and question pretty much everything. These types of personalities are like oil and water and do not mix. You almost need a third person to act as a emulsifier to allow the oil&water to mix without separating.
• aaronharnly 2y ago
  Well, this confirms that OpenAI have been shooting from the hip, not that we needed much confirmation. The fact that they repeatedly tried to hire Johansson, then went ahead and made a soundalike while explicitly describing that they were trying to make it be like her voice in the movie … is pretty bad for them.
  • llamaimperative 2y ago
    “Shooting from the hip” is giving them too much credit. Actual knowing malice and dishonesty is more like it.
  • infotainment 2y ago
    It’s definitely sketchy (classic OpenAI) But my question is: is what they did actually illegal? Can someone copyright their own voice?
    • automatoney 2y ago
      In the United States, likeness rights vary by state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_rights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_rights
    • foota 2y ago
      I think this will fall under what are termed personality rights, and the answer varies by state within the US.
    • duskwuff 2y ago
      It's not precisely copyright, but most states recognize some form of personality rights, which encompass a person's voice just as much as the person's name or visual appearance.
      • bhhaskin 2y ago
        But where it will get murky is people sound like other people. Most voices are hardly unique. It will be interesting to see where this lands.
• dilap 2y ago
  > 4. Naughtiness > Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. They're not Goody Two-Shoes type good. Morally, they care about getting the big questions right, but not about observing proprieties. That's why I'd use the word naughty rather than evil. They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter. This quality may be redundant though; it may be implied by imagination. > Sam Altman of Loopt is one of the most successful alumni, so we asked him what question we could put on the Y Combinator application that would help us discover more people like him. He said to ask about a time when they'd hacked something to their advantage—hacked in the sense of beating the system, not breaking into computers. It has become one of the questions we pay most attention to when judging applications. "What We Look for in Founders", PG https://paulgraham.com/founders.html https://paulgraham.com/founders.html I think the more powerful you become, the less endearing this trait is.
  • shombaboor 2y ago
    it seems most of the big companies try to break the rules while in the process become so strong they trade it off for what becomes a marginal fine & cost of doing business. Facebook, Uber come to mind first. This may just be the same.
    • astrange 2y ago
      Everyone let Uber get away with breaking taxi rules because those rules were only good for the people with the taxi medallion monopoly. (Which wasn't even the taxi drivers, although they were plenty bad enough on their own.)
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • aeurielesn 2y ago
    This quote actually makes me disgusted. I don't think this is a quality to encourage on, especially since despite the tone it reads more as abuse.
• mxstbr 2y ago
  There is no source; black text on a white background. How do we know this is real?
  • llamaimperative 2y ago
    It was posted by the tech reporter at NPR. Inb4 “journos can’t be trusted” blah blah blah, here in reality NPR is a reputable org and a reasonable person’s Bayesian priors would put this at “almost certainly an actual statement from ScarJo.”
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  • shombaboor 2y ago
    This reporter appears to have confirmed it from a direct source https://x.com/yashar/status/1792682664845254683?t=EwNPiMPwRedl0MOlkNf1Tw https://x.com/yashar/status/1792682664845254683?t=EwNPiMPwRe...
  • Animats 2y ago
    Variety has a story.[1] It doesn't yet mention an direct statement from Johannson. But watch that space. Variety is well connected in Hollywood and will check with her agent to confirm or deny. [1] https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/openai-pulls-scarlett-johansson-her-movie-ai-chatgpt-1236010317/ https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/openai-pulls-scarlett-...
    • Animats 2y ago
      Variety article updated: [UPDATE: Johansson released a statement saying Altman had reached out to ask her to lend her voice to ChatGPT but she declined; when she heard the demo, “I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine.”]
  • timdorr 2y ago
    Scarlett Johansson doesn't have social media accounts: https://nypost.com/2023/04/04/why-scarlett-johansson-is-not-on-social-media/ https://nypost.com/2023/04/04/why-scarlett-johansson-is-not-... Stuff from her comes via press agents, which is generally sent directly to reporters.
• notamy 2y ago
  http://archive.ph/cr759 http://archive.ph/cr759 https://nitter.poast.org/BobbyAllyn/status/1792679435701014908 https://nitter.poast.org/BobbyAllyn/status/17926794357010149...
• endisneigh 2y ago
  Sadly not much will come of this. Even if they’re fined, so what?
  • MrSkelter 2y ago
    You have no idea. Th will settle or be forced to admit they used a movie studios IP without payment to clone a voice model. They will cut a check for tens of millions and maybe stock as well. They will run from this as is clearly obvious from the immediate takedown. They are in crisis mode.
    • astrange 2y ago
      Who says creating a voice model from a movie would require you to pay anyone?
      • rangerelf 2y ago
        I'd say it's a given, every detail in a movie is an artistic expression of some kind.
  • fullshark 2y ago
    I don't agree, if Johansson is serious about wanting a legal precedent set and doesn't care about the money (tbd) then a hypothetical lawsuit could go to the US Supreme court and lead to a decision that has significant ramifications.
    • bigiain 2y ago
      "US Supreme court" Yeah. _That_ well known completely rational and unquestionably incorruptible institution. I would bet Altman had been to more teenage sex parties and paid for more holidays with SC judges that Scarlett has... :sigh:
  • polynomial 2y ago
    Exactly, cost of doing business.
• Imnimo 2y ago
  Many of OpenAI's productization ideas make more sense when you remember that the guy in charge also thought Worldcoin and it's eye scanning or were a good idea.
• ozten 2y ago
  Nooo. I've been enjoying that voice for a few months on my iPhone ChatGPT app. Launched... and tested... the voice is someone else now.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• keepamovin 2y ago
  I think it’s interesting that Johansson chose to forgo substantial royalties and collaboration potential But it must feel pretty fucking weird and violatory when you spend your entire life thinking about how you are going to deliver certain lines and that’s your creative Body of work, and then for someone to just take that Voice and apply it to any random text that can be generated? I get why she wouldn’t want to let it go. In a way it is similar to how a developer might feel about their code being absorbed, generalized, and then regurgitated almost verbatim as part of some AI responses But in the case of voice it’s even worse as the personality impression is contained in the slightest utterance… whereas a style of coding Or a piece of code might be less Recognizable, and generally applicable to such a wide range of productions Voice is the original human technology, To try to take that from someone without their consent is a pretty all encompassing grab
  • whamlastxmas 2y ago
    SJ is a major character in like 5 of the top grossing movies of all time. The royalties from her voice being used by ChatGPT would be meaningless to her
  • steveBK123 2y ago
    She choose to forego being a billion lonely guys AI girlfriend Not a bad call for someone already rich
    • keepamovin 2y ago
      > She choose to forego being a billion lonely guys AI girlfriend To suggest that Johansson’s only appeal is to the opposite gender (and ‘lonely’ ones at that!) I think is myopic and reductive of her impact hahaha! :)
    • keepamovin 2y ago
      > She choose to forego being a billion lonely guys AI girlfriend To suggest that Johansson’s only appeal is to the opposite gender (and ‘lonely’ ones at that!) I think is myopic and reductive of her impact
• UberFly 2y ago
  OpenAI has successfully stolen the intellectual property of millions of people to incorporate into their product, so why would they fear stealing someones voice at this point? I hope she wins. Maybe it'll set some kind of precedent.
  • whamlastxmas 2y ago
    Calling it stealing is a stretch. They have, at worst, infringed on copyright and terms of service.
• steveBK123 2y ago
  Incredibly stupid The wink wink at creating an AI girlfriend is so bizarre I guess we know who their target user base is
  • talldayo 2y ago
    Worse than that, good luck positioning yourself as a paragon of "AI safety" when you can't even handle basic human business relationships honestly.
    • crazygringo 2y ago
      Seriously. This is utterly baffling to me. OpenAI is trying to demonstrate how it's so trustworthy, and is always talking about how important it is to be trustworthy when it comes to something as important and potentially dangerous as AI. And then they do something like this...?? I literally don't understand how they could be this dumb. Do they not have a lawyer? Or do they not tell their corporate counsel what they're up to? Or just ignore the counsel when they do?
      • steveBK123 2y ago
        Also retired the entire safety team in the same weak too, lol.
        • bigiain 2y ago
          I wonder howe much their anti disparagement clauses are about covering up how this went down internally?
      • prawn 2y ago
        Especially considering that the advantage gained by having an AI sound like this one individual is absolutely minimal. It's not as though any significant portion of a target market is going to throw a tantrum, saying "No, no, I refuse to accept this simulated companionship unless it sounds exactly like the voice in that one particular movie several years ago." Baffling that the company didn't recognise the risk here and retire that voice as soon as they were turned down the first time.
• brcmthrowaway 2y ago
  This reads like a PR stunt. Why did they clone the voice from Her?
  • whamlastxmas 2y ago
    SJ doesn’t have a monopoly on the sultry giggly flirty American female voice. There are a million women who could imitate this pretty closely
• dangoodmanUT 2y ago
  Alright who left the dwight schrute cloner on overnight in the comments
• blibble 2y ago
  consent appears to be optional for everything OpenAI does
  • ml-anon 2y ago
    Those are the rumors about Sam…
• LeoPanthera 2y ago
  Non-X sources: https://news.google.com/stories/CAAqNggKIjBDQklTSGpvSmMzUnZjbmt0TXpZd1NoRUtEd2pUX09yVkN4RUdyZ2VGQ2RxbzNTZ0FQAQ?ceid=US:en&oc=3 https://news.google.com/stories/CAAqNggKIjBDQklTSGpvSmMzUnZj...
• akr4s1a 2y ago
  I can't fathom such a bad decision as asking someone for permission to use their voice and doing it anyway after they say no. It's almost like NYT is currently suing them for unauthorized use and they should really not be making such an amateur mistake.
• MBCook 2y ago
  I really hope she sues the company to hell and back. She has the resources to fight back and make an example of them, and they have the resources to make it worthwhile.
  • ml-anon 2y ago
    Scarlett Johansson made Disney cave. She’s going to absolutely destroy this band of grifters.
    • MBCook 2y ago
      Not only that, I don’t think Disney wants this precedent. They may also want to get back on her good side. Either way given they own a number of movies with her in starring roles I wouldn’t be surprised if they were happy to help in her lawsuit with the legal fees. Hell they may sue on their own or join as another damaged party.
      • ml-anon 2y ago
        I’m sure they are salivating at the thought of discovery forcing OAI to crack open their datasets so they can put a dollar amount to every piece of infringing material in there.
  • threatofrain 2y ago
    I'm not sure she can do much since OpenAI withdrew so quickly. What damages are there?
    • callalex 2y ago
      The way USA courts are set up, setting precedent and assessing damages are two distinct things. I agree that the precedent she would be targeting wouldn’t be all that financially rewarding but that’s not the only thing that motivates humans.
    • system2 2y ago
      Sky voice is still there.
• sashank_1509 2y ago
  This is hilarious. OpenAI didn’t even need to press for this voice, their technical demo was impressive enough, but they did and now it’ll cast a shadow over a pretty impressive AI advancement. In the long term though, this won’t matter.
• anon373839 2y ago
  Well, that statement lays out a damning timeline: - OpenAI approached Scarlett last fall, and she refused. - Two days before the GPT-4o launch, they contacted her agent and asked that she reconsider. (Two days! This means they already had everything they needed to ship the product with Scarlett’s cloned voice.) - Not receiving a response, OpenAI demos the product anyway, with Sam tweeting “her” in reference to Scarlett’s film. - When Scarlett’s counsel asked for an explanation of how the “Sky” voice was created, OpenAI yanked the voice from their product line. Perhaps Sam’s next tweet should read “red-handed”.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • MrMetlHed 2y ago
    Would love to see this get far enough for discovery to see how that all played out behind the scenes.
    • hehdhdjehehegwv 2y ago
      They’ll settle as soon as they figure that out. Idiot tax.
      • ml-anon 2y ago
        She has no incentive to settle and actually could win big by being the figurehead of the creative industry against AI. It’s understandable why she accepted a settlement from Disney, but there’s no reason why she should settle with a random startup that has no other influence on her employability in Hollywood.
        • MrMetlHed 2y ago
          And plenty of her peers have been fighting against AI content harvesting in their recent contract negotiations[1]. 1. https://apnews.com/article/hollywood-ai-strike-wga-artificial-intelligence-39ab72582c3a15f77510c9c30a45ffc8 https://apnews.com/article/hollywood-ai-strike-wga-artificia...
• jalapenos 2y ago
  It's a real shame she didn't take the deal though
• wnevets 2y ago
  An AI company stealing someone elses IP for profit? Unheard of.
• ThinkBeat 2y ago
  SJ mentions deep fakes. It is quite possible that OpenAI has synthesized the voice from SJ material. However If OpenAI can produce the woman who did is the current voice, and she has a voice nearly identical that of SJ would that mean OpenAI had done something wrong? Does SJ since she is a celebrity hold a "patent" right to sound like her. The more likely scenario is that they have hired a person and told her to try and imitate how SJ sounds. What is the law on something like that?
  • not2b 2y ago
    The answer, based on two different court precedents (Bette Midler, Tom Waits), is that the company can't do that. Companies cannot hire soundalike people to advertise their products after the person with a distinctive voice they really wanted declined. Doesn't matter if they hired a soundalike and used her voice.
    • crimsoneer 2y ago
      There is a big, big difference between actively and intentional imitating a voice, and having a broadly similar voice though!
      • crimsoneer 2y ago
        The CEO tweeting a jokey reference to your voice really doesn't help though.
      • talldayo 2y ago
        A difference that gets increasingly narrow when you are desperately trying to license the original likeness.
      • bigiain 2y ago
        Yeah but... Them trying (and failing) to negotiate the rights, and then them vaguely attempting again 2 days before launch, and fucking Altman tweeting a quite obvious reference to a movie in which SJ is the voice of an AI girlfriend - leans very very strongly in the direction of "active and intentional imitation". Anybody trying to claim some accidental or coincidental similarity here has a pretty serious credibility hole they need to start digging themselves out of.
• cdme 2y ago
  Steal everything they possibly can and hope they end up too big to kill. I sincerely hope they fail spectacularly.
• bogwog 2y ago
  [flagged]
• chimney 2y ago
  Sounds like someone has not been consistently candid with their communication.
• tonetheman 2y ago
  [dead]
• 1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
  https://nitter.poast.org/pic/orig/media%2FGODgca6bAAAxaPB.jpg https://nitter.poast.org/pic/orig/media%2FGODgca6bAAAxaPB.jp...
• BadHumans 2y ago
  I know there are people here who think you should be able to use a person's likeness for whatever but regardless of how you feel, I don't think you can disagree this is a pretty bad look and does not reflect well on Altman or OpenAI.
• nabla9 2y ago
  Johansson has money to hire lawyers and immediate access to media, so they backed off. Altman and OpenAI will walk over everyone here without any difficulty if they decide to take whats ours.
  • ecjhdnc2025 2y ago
    I often wonder why tech people think so positively about companies they idolise who are Uber-ing their way through regulations. Where do they think it stops? Why would people not want laws? The answer is so they can do the things that the laws prevent. This is POSIWID territory [0]. "The purpose of a system is what it does". Not what it repeatedly fails to live up to. What was the primary investment purpose of Uber? Not any of the things it will forever fail to turn a profit at. It was to destroy regulations preventing companies like Uber doing what they do. That is what it succeeded at. The purpose of OpenAI is to minimise and denigrate the idea of individual human contributions. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_wha...
    • wilg 2y ago
      Nobody besides cab medallion owners really liked the regulations that Uber violated is probably a big part of it
    • nerdponx 2y ago
      > I often wonder why tech people think so positively about companies they idolise who are Uber-ing their way through regulations. Where do they think it stops? Because they don't think about the consequences, and don't want to. Better to retreat into the emotional safety of techno-fantasy and feeling like you're on the cutting edge of something big and new (and might make some good money in the process). Same reason people got into NFTs.
      • ecjhdnc2025 2y ago
        > Same reason people got into NFTs. Same people who got into NFTs.
• dang 2y ago
  Recent and related: OpenAI pulls Johansson soundalike Sky’s voice from ChatGPT - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414249 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414249 - May 2024 (96 comments)
• stavros 2y ago
  This is the first I've heard of this, but I've used the "Sky" voice extensively and never once thought it sounded like Johansson. Has anyone else noticed a similarity? To me they sound pretty different, Johansson's voice is much more raspy.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • z7 2y ago
    Looks like you're not the only one who thinks the voices don't sound similar: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414908 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414908 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414923 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414923 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40419791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40419791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414902 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414902 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414713 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414713 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40415350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40415350 Saw some other posters expressing this view who deleted their posts after getting downvoted, lol.
    • WrongAssumption 2y ago
      I mean, the first post you linked to explicitly says they do sound similar. The last one says they don’t know what Scarlets voice sounds like to begin with.
  • chemmail 2y ago
    Bottom line anyone who watched the movie "Her" will make an immediate connection. Also does not help Sam Xed "her" the night before. Pretty much slam dunk case.
    • stavros 2y ago
      Anyone who watched the movie "Her" will make an immediate connection with any of the female voices. It's kind of the entire point of the film.
• sebzim4500 2y ago
  Maybe I'm crazy but I don't think the voices are even that similar. I simply don't believe that her closest friends could not tell the difference.
  • cdrini 2y ago
    I didn't think the old Sky sounded anything like her, but the sky they unveiled at the 4o event seemed super similar. While watching the event I was genuinely wondering "wait did they actually partner with Scarlett Johansson? That's wild!" This voice: https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1790072174117613963 https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1790072174117613963
• rvz 2y ago
  Again. After Johansson was approached to be hired for the voice then another AI company tried to clone her voice without her permission. Doesn't matter around similarity. There was nothing fair-use around this voice and it is exactly why OpenAI yanked the voice and indirectly admitted to cloning her voice. [0 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38154733 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38154733]
• drooby 2y ago
  If we're talking about the voice from the "Say hello to GPT-4o", then this is clearly not Scarlett J. They have similar voices, but SJ has more bass and rasp. And if it's true that OpenAI hired a different actor, then this should basically be case closed. The voice of Sky (assuming that's the same as the demo video), sounds like a run of the mill voice actor tbh. Great, but not that interesting or unique.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
• ml-anon 2y ago
  Combined with Murati’s reaction when asked if they trained Sora on YouTube videos, it’s obvious that OpenAI has trained their TTS systems on a whole bunch of copyrighted content including the output of professional actors and voice actors who definitely weren’t compensated for their work. Altman and Murati are world-class grifters but until now they were stealing from print media and digital artists. Now they’re clashing with some of the most litigious industries with the deepest pockets. They’re not going to win this one.
  • meowface 2y ago
    You claim to work for either Anthropic or DeepMind (almost certainly DeepMind). I'm doubtful their AI products don't use people's works in similar ways.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• Havoc 2y ago
  Doesn’t sound all that similar to me
• worstspotgain 2y ago
  Most of the reactions here are in unison, so there's little left to contribute in agreement. I'll ask the devil's advocate / contrarian question: How big a slice of the human voice space does Scarlett lay a claim to? The evidence would be in her favor in a civil court case. OTOH, a less famous woman's claim that any given synthesized voice sounds like hers would probably fail. Contrast this with copyrighted fiction. That space is dimensionally much bigger. If you're not deliberately trying to copy some work, it's very unlikely that you'll get in trouble accidentally. The closest comparison is the Marvin Gaye estate's case. Arguably, the estate laid claim to a large fraction of what is otherwise a dimensionally large space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharrell_Williams_v._Bridgeport_Music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharrell_Williams_v._Bridgepor...
  • jakelazaroff 2y ago
    (Not a lawyer) I think the issue is not just that they sound similar, but that OpenAI sought to profit from that perceived similarity. It’s pretty clear from Sam Altman’s “her” tweet that OpenAI, at least, considers it a fairly narrow slice of the human voice space.
    • worstspotgain 2y ago
      That's true. As I suggested, this case may well be open and shut. But what if it was Google's or Meta's voice that sounded exactly like Sky, i.e. without a history of failed negotiations? The amount of "likeness" would technically be identical. Are companies better off not even trying to negotiate to begin with?
      • jakelazaroff 2y ago
        Not sure legally. I chose the words “perceived similarity” intentionally to encompass scenarios in which the similarity is coincidental but widely recognized. Even in that case, I believe the original person should be entitled to a say.
      • MrMetlHed 2y ago
        It'd be fine to not negotiate if you weren't going to use a voice that sounded famous. If I were offering something that let you make any kind of voice you want, I would definitely not market any voice that sounded familiar in any way. Let the users do that (which would happen almost immediately after launch). I would use a generic employee in the example, or the CEO, or I'd go get the most famous person I could afford that would play ball. I would then make sure the marketing materials showed the person I was cloning and demonstrated just how awesome my tool was at getting a voice match. What I wouldn't do is use anything that remotely sounds famous. And I would definitely not use someone that said "no thanks" beforehand. And I would under no circumstances send emails or messages suggesting staff create a voice that sounds like someone famous. Then, and only then, would I feel safe in marketing a fake voice.
• z7 2y ago
  So they wanted Johansson's voice, she declined, they chose another voice actress who sounds somewhat similar. Can someone explain why that is bad? I don't really get it.
  • rangerelf 2y ago
    Did they really hire another voice actress? Who? As for why it's bad, it's because they set down the precedent of wanting specifically Scarlett Johansen's voice, got declined, doubled down, got declined again, and then went ahead and did it anyway. They can say in their own defense that it's some other voice actress that sounds similar, ok, so produce that name, tell us who she is. Absent that, it's Johansen's voice, clipped from movies and interviews and shows and whatever.
    • z7 2y ago
      OpenAI says: "Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice." https://openai.com/index/how-the-voices-for-chatgpt-were-chosen/ https://openai.com/index/how-the-voices-for-chatgpt-were-cho...
      • drcode 2y ago
        Yeah, an ScarJo asked them to provide evidence of this before suing them, and they couldn't... and they have a track record of lying.
        • dorkwood 2y ago
          Why shouldn't we trust what OpenAI says? If they say they used another actress, we should give them the benefit of the doubt. Questioning them only gives fuel to their detractors, which could in turn slow progress and reduce investment in the space.
          • mrbungie 2y ago
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• ecjhdnc2025 2y ago
  OpenAI: it's like Uber for not respecting common decency.
• oldpersonintx 2y ago
  [dead]
• reducesuffering 2y ago
  Remember when the OpenAI board said Sam was "not consistently candid" and most people here advocated he be reinstated and how dare the board? They are speedrunning the Google "Don't Be Evil" rug-pull. Not allocating the superalignment team resources they were promised, "don't criticize OpenAI or mention there's an NDA or you lose all your equity"...
  • globalnode 2y ago
    I think the 2 tech leads that just resigned are actually dodging a HUGE bullet.
• throwaway5752 2y ago
  Maybe this "non-profit" shouldn't be entrusted with one of the most potentially dangerous and world changing techologies in 80 years if they can't ethically handle providing a voice to their model.
• wetpaws 2y ago
  [dead]
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• j-bos 2y ago
  Only partially related: One thing I often wonder with generative tools, and even before that with the explosion of gobal artists' publishing online: When is it infringing to make something that looks or sounds like somebody famous? I mean, there's only so many ways a human voice voice can sound or face can look. At what point are entire concepts locked down just because somebody famous exists or existed that pattern matches.
• djaykay 2y ago
  At this point it’s time to create lists of “ethical” AI services, ones that aren’t OpenAI nor other bad actors. I’m dropping my ChatGPT Plus today. Any suggestions on what to replace it with?
  • 1ark 2y ago
    HuggingFace?
• risenshinetech 2y ago
  It's OK everyone. I saw some people on HN say that "it sounds nothing her voice". I believe them over Her.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• GaggiX 2y ago
  "Sky" voice has been the default for about 8 months now, I think, if it resembles Scarlett Johansson so much, why does no one seem to have mentioned it before?
  • zamadatix 2y ago
    It's been mentioned so much in the last 8 months it prompted me to go watch "Her" 11 years after it came out.
    • GaggiX 2y ago
      I only saw Scarlett Johansson and "Her" being mentioned only after the presentation of ChatGPT-4o. I saw people asking for a Scarlett Johansson voice tho.
      • zamadatix 2y ago
        This way prior to 4o. The demo did seem to make the discussion louder though as everyone was suddenly talking about the voice feature whereas previously it was a slow side option for mobile devices only.
  • ec109685 2y ago
    They added much more Her like emotion to the gpt-4o version, so the similarities are more striking.
• tmsh 2y ago
  i think openai would do better if they had principles, values, etc. around responsibility and ownership. it doesn't seem like principles should matter. but then the bill of rights doesn't seem like it should matter either if you were to cold read the constitution (you might be like - hmm, kinda seems important maybe...). it compounds culturally over time though. principles ^ time = culture. "Audacious, Thoughtful, Unpretentious, Impact-driven, Collaborative, and Growth-oriented." https://archive.is/wLOfC#selection-1095.112-1095.200 https://archive.is/wLOfC#selection-1095.112-1095.200 maybe "thoughtful" was the closest (and sam is apologetic and regretful and transparent - kudos to him for that). but it's not that clear without a core principle around responsibility. you need that imho to avoid losing trust.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
  I found the whole ChatGPT-4o demo to be cringe inducing. The fact that Altman was explicitly, and desperately, trying to copy "her" at least makes it understandable why he didn't veto the bimbo persona - it's actually what he wanted. Great call by Scarlett Johansson in not wanting to be any part of it. One thing these trained voices make clear is that it's a tts engine generating ChatGPT-4o's speech, same as before. The whole omni-modal spin suggesting that the model is natively consuming and generating speech appears to be bunk.
  • aabhay 2y ago
    I wouldn’t go as far as your last statement. While shocking, it’s not inconceivable that there’s native token I/O for audio. In fact tokenizing audio directly actually seems more efficient since the tokenization could be local. Nevertheless. This is still incredibly embarrassing for OpenAI. And totally hurts the company’s aspiration to be good for humanity.
    • timeon 2y ago
      > company’s aspiration to be good for humanity Seems like they abandoned it pretty early - if it was real in the first place.
  • leumon 2y ago
    I think it is more then a simple tts engine. At least from the demo, they showed: It can control the speed and it can sing when requested. Maybe its still a seperate speech engine, but more closely connected to the llm.
    • sooheon 2y ago
      tts with separate channels for style would do it, no?
    • nabakin 2y ago
      Azure Speech tts is capable of doing this with SSML. I wouldn't be surprised if it's what OpenAI is using on the backend.
• nikolay 2y ago
  Except that Sky doesn't sound like Scarlett Johansson. I'm sick and tired of Hollywood!
  • nikolay 2y ago
    Sky voice is quite different [0]! Yet another PR stunt as the world has forgotten about her! [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1cwy6wz/vocal_comparison_scarjo_vs_samantha_vs_sky/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1cwy6wz/vocal_comp...
• nicklecompte 2y ago
  From the Ars Technica story[1], this is very funny: > But OpenAI's chief technology officer, Mira Murati, has said that GPT-4o's voice modes were less inspired by Her than by studying the "really natural, rich, and interactive" aspects of human conversation, The Wall Street Journal reported. People made fun of Murati when she froze after being asked what Sora was trained on. But behavior like that indicates understanding that you could get the company sued if you said something incriminating. Altman just tweets through it. [1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/05/openai-pauses-chatgpt-4o-voice-that-fans-said-ripped-off-scarlett-johansson/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/05/openai-pauses-ch...
  • foreverobama 2y ago
    [dead]
  • gkanai 2y ago
    Bloomberg's Odd Lots Podcast had an ex-CIA officer, Phil Houston, on in April of 2024. He was promoting a new book but he had a lot of great advice for anyone to use regarding 'tells' when people are lying. Murati was clearly lying- that's obvious then and now. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/an-ex-cia-officer-explains-how-to-spot-a-lie-in-business/id1056200096?i=1000653662071 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/an-ex-cia-officer-expl...
    • coolandsmartrr 2y ago
      Could you explain what "to use regarding 'tells'" means in this context?
      • applecrazy 2y ago
        A "tell" in this case is domain-specific terminology to denote a behavior that provides information that the person may have been trying to keep secret. I believe the term comes from poker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_(poker) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_(poker)
    • 2y ago
• lovemenot 2y ago
  Reminiscent of the movie The Congress, in which Robin Wright's character, a famous actor, is hustled by a movie studio into giving up her likeness for them to continue making films starring her, in perpetuity.
• swat535 2y ago
  Does Sam has any more reputation to burn? Seriously, who would genuinely trust him at this point? I mean I know he has hundreds of blind followers but good Lord, you would think that the man, with all his years of experience had some sense to introspect about what he is trying to achieve vs how he is going about it. Money really does blind all our senses, doesn't it?
  • rvz 2y ago
    > Does Sam has any more reputation to burn? Seriously, who would genuinely trust him at this point? Sam doesn’t care. After the board threw him out of his own company, why would he allow that to happen again? With that, he now trusts far much less people. > Money really does blind all our senses, doesn't it? That is why the cultishness was full on display last year when he was fired by the board.
• gcanyon 2y ago
  I watched the keynote and many of the demo videos and never once thought, "That sounds just like ScarJo." That said, the timeline she lays out is damning indeed.
• rockemsockem 2y ago
  This is interesting to hear and if she decides to sue there's extremely clear precedent on her side. The fact that they reached out to her multiple times and insinuated it was supposed to sound like her with Sam's "her" tweet makes a pretty clear connection to her. Without that they'd probably be fine. Bette Midler sued Ford under very similar circumstances and won. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co.
  • thefourthchime 2y ago
    I wonder if Scarlett Johansson really has a legal copyright since Warner Bros. owns the rights to the movie "Her." It would be like Dan Castellaneta trying to get a copyright for Homer Simpson when the character is owned by Fox.
    • rockemsockem 2y ago
      It's not copyright, you can't copyright a voice, it's down to likeness laws. It seems to me that they clearly invoked her likeness as a celebrity. It'll be interesting to see what happens if she sues and refuses to settle.
  • thefourthchime 2y ago
    I'm not sure. In the case of *Midler v. Ford Motor Co.*, the advertising agency hired a singer to do an impression of Bette Midler herself, not a character she performs. The singer was instructed to sound as much like Bette Midler as possible while performing her hit song "Do You Want to Dance?" for the Ford commercial. This use of a sound-alike voice led to the lawsuit, as it mimicked Midler's distinctive voice without her permission. Scarlett Johansson's character in the movie is not Scarlett Johansson although her voice is very similar. I wouldn't say it's identical.
    • rockemsockem 2y ago
      I haven't seen the commercial, but I feel like it's also probably not identical. My read of the case is that the context connecting Midler to the ad without her consent was a key feature, which makes me think Scarlett Johansson would be in a similarly strong position if she brought a case. But ultimately I'm also not sure. There are some differences that courts could find important. I hope she sues and refuses to settle, so we can find out!
• vagab0nd 2y ago
  What if the model asks the user to input an audio sample of the person they'd like to hear, and use that? Would that be legal?
  • prawn 2y ago
    Presumably the software could have terms of use that put any onus of use on the individual, assuming their marketing didn't promote being able to do this with random celebrities' voices.
  • MarioMan 2y ago
    That’s how Elevenlabs voice cloning works. They put the onus on the person making the clone to have gotten consent. https://elevenlabs.io/voice-cloning https://elevenlabs.io/voice-cloning
• skepticATX 2y ago
  There are models that are nearly as good as GPT-4 now. For personal usage, I've been using them for a while now. OpenAI has jumped the shark so much that I'm going to advocate for moving to Anthropic/Google models at work now. OpenAI simply can't be trusted while Sam is at the helm.
• callalex 2y ago
  I think we should all strive to meet the standards of “Weird” Al Yankovic. He set out to do something that was widely hated by a very powerful and litigious sector, and yet after a full career he is widely revered by both the public and the industry. He masterfully sidestepped any problems by adhering to the basic concept of consent while still getting what he wanted 99% of the time.
  • justin66 2y ago
    Did anyone say no to him other than Prince?
    • apengwin 2y ago
      Paul McCartney
      • MBlume 2y ago
        As I recall McCartney didn't like the idea of Live And Let Die being parodied as Chicken Pot Pie, since he's vegetarian. Funny thing is so's Al.
    • morkalork 2y ago
      Coolio didn't say yes to Amish paradise but the record label that had the rights agreed to the deal without him (which certainly shows who's in charge in that industry eh?). Many years later, Coolio admitted that he was wrong about the whole thing though.
      • justin66 2y ago
        Oh my. That’s disappointing, in the sense that I believe I’ve heard Al say that he always checks with the artist.
        • zamadatix 2y ago
          If you take Weird Al's word for it, he was told Coolio had approved and only later found out it was the other way around: "…two separate people from my label told me that they had personally talked to Coolio… and that he told them that he was okay with the whole parody idea…Halfway into production, my record label told me that Coolio’s management had a problem with the parody, even though Coolio personally was okay with it. My label told me… they would iron things out — so I proceeded with the recording and finished the album." https://www.vulture.com/2011/12/gangstas-parodist-revisiting-weird-al-vs-coolio.html https://www.vulture.com/2011/12/gangstas-parodist-revisiting...
• minimaxir 2y ago
  One interesting legal caveat is that the Sky voice isn't "ScarJo", it's ScarJo as acted in the movie Her. An issue with voice actors having their voice stolen by AI models/voice cloning tech is that they have no legal standing because their performance is owned by their client, and therefore no ownership. ScarJo may not have standing, depending on the contract (I suspect hers is much different than typical VA). It might have to be Annapurna Pictures that sues OpenAI instead. Forbes had a good story about performer rights of voices: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2023/10/09/keep-your-paws-off-my-voice-voice-actors-worry-generative-ai-will-steal-their-livelihoods/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2023/10/09/kee... IANAL of course.
  • muglug 2y ago
    IANAL either, but that's not the caveat you think it is. Bette Midler was able to sue Ford Motor Co. for damages after they hired a sound-alike voice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co. Ford had acquired the rights to the song (which Midler didn't write).
• whatever1 2y ago
  Judging from this, YouTube is gonna make a ton of money from Sora.
• mtnGoat 2y ago
  Oh wait Altman and team acting like they rule the world?! If that box wasn’t in your bingo card I’m sorry, it’s basically the center/free box at this point.
• 0xWTF 2y ago
  Anyone care to bet Microsoft and other investors are actually ok with this narrative? I think they are, and in fact may be advocating for Sam to advance this narrative, because they 1) want a court decision, no matter which way it goes, and 2) they're confident OpenAI has more capabilities in the pipeline
• mensetmanusman 2y ago
  The little mermaid story was true! Who would have thought we would be discussing voice theft someday.
• SLHamlet 2y ago
  Really not a smart idea for OpenAI to do this when one of the top Congresspeople represents the Hollywood area, is about to be elected Senator, and already has a bill ready to require AI companies to abide by copyright: https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2024/04/adam-schiff-ai-video-games-metaverse-generative-ai-copyright-disclosure-act.html https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2024/04/adam-schiff-ai-video-games...
  • xyst 2y ago
    VCs and angel investors feeling the burn right now. I hope all the firms on Sand Hill Rd get bent
• helsinki 2y ago
  Statement from Scarlett Johannson’s publicist* FTFY
• whoknowsidont 2y ago
  Has this industry learned nothing? I don't know guys, the super hyped up company with next-gen technology might just be using crime, underhanded tactics, and overstating their capabilities to pull in the thing we all love... and it's not each other or your friend's mother! It's money!
• ml-anon 2y ago
  >Last week, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati told me the Sky voice was not patterned after ScarJo. >"I don't know about the voice. I actually had to go and listen to Scarlett Johansson's voice," Murati said. Seems like a big part of Mira’s job is not knowing things. How is no one questioning how she landed a VP job at OpenAI 2 years after being an L5 PM?
• ptelomere 2y ago
  First they lie to you saying they will save the world. Then they take from you saying they're using them to make the world a better place. Then they rule you, saying "there are no other ways". All the while many people believe them at every step.
• hotdogscout 2y ago
  Such a nothing burger. Do moralists not get tired of picking up pitchforks? Imitating a movie AI was a cool idea and imitation was the only legal way to do it. Do you pull your hair when companies advertise with Elvis impersonators? Nobody was significantly harmed by this, I can guarantee the rich people that use hacker news consume things from much less savory standards than imitating a celebrity. Nestlé is strong but you pull the plug at THIS? Pg has done worse and he owns this forum. Have some perspective.
• erichmond 2y ago
  This is why OpenAI being the "leader" in the space worries me. We need to be building trust in AI systems, not leaning into what the public perception is. On the other hand, maybe it's good they are showing who they really are.
• totalhack 2y ago
  Go f'in get 'em Scarlett.
• xyst 2y ago
  Sam Altman is an absolute scumbag. Fuck ClosedAI. Hope this company and its VCs crash and burn like Theranos. Maybe Altman lands in jail or files for bankruptcy after all the dust settles.
• ab5tract 2y ago
  As soon as you heard an AI laughing, you should have rejected it categorically. Simps.
• samcat116 2y ago
  What a stupid self own by OpenAI that could have easily been avoided.
• neilv 2y ago
  Isn't OpenAI mostly built upon disregarding the copyright of countless people? And hasn't OpenAI recently shown that they can pull off a commercial coup d'état, unscathed? Why would they not simply also take the voice of some actress? That's small potatoes. No one is going to push back against OpenAI meaningfully. People are still going to use ChatGPT to cheat on their homework, to phone-in their jobs, and to try to ride OpenAI's coattails. The current staff have already shown they're aligned with the coup. Politicians and business leaders befriend money. Maybe OpenAI will eventually settle with the actress, for a handful of coins they found in the cushions of their trillion-dollar sofa.
  • tony_cannistra 2y ago
    > No one is going to push back against OpenAI meaningfully. Couldn't, perhaps, one of the more famous people on Earth be responsible for "meaningfully" taking OpenAI to task for this? Perhaps even being the impetus for legislative action?
    • neilv 2y ago
      And allied with an army of other artists. If they tell the story of OpenAI, in a way that reaches people, that would be a triumph of the real artists, over the dystopian robo-plagiarists. I love it already.
  • johnnyanmac 2y ago
    >Isn't OpenAI mostly built upon disregarding the copyright of countless people? It sure was. But OpenAI decided to poke the Bear and is being sued by NYT. And apparently as a sidequest they thought it best to put their head in a lion's mouth. I wouldn't call the PR clout and finances of an A-list celebrity small potators. They could have easily flown under the radar and have been praised as the next Google if they kept to petty thievery on the internet instead of going for the high profile content. >People are still going to use ChatGPT to cheat on their homework, to phone-in their jobs, and to try to ride OpenAI's coattails. Sure, and ChatGPT isn't goint to make lots of money from these small time users. They want to target corporate, and nothing scares of coporate more than pending litigation. So I think this will bite them sooner rathter than later. >Maybe OpenAI will eventually settle with the actress, for a handful of coins they found in the cushions of their trillion-dollar sofa. I suppose we'll see. I'm sure she was offered a few pennies as is, and she rejected that. She may not be in it for the money. She very likely doesn't need to work another day in her life as is.
• z7 2y ago
  [flagged]
• rileytg 2y ago
  i’m confused about the timeline, it is still available to me? did they decide to reactivate?
• browningstreet 2y ago
  Sam is aligned with the Elon playbook.
• deadbabe 2y ago
  Are we doomed to someday have all the popular AI voices sound like submissive, borderline sexually subservient females?
• Art9681 2y ago
  Hot take. The lesson for OpenAI is to STFU. Always. This is always the best thing to do. STFU. You wanted to emulate her voice? Should have done it anyway and not told a soul. You know why? Because there are tens of thousands of women who sound like that. It's a very generic voice and accent. Let's be real here. Many of us have seen her movies and had we not read the controversy we would not have made the connection. All OpenAI had to do was move forward with intent and let HER prove its HER voice, and not a generalization of many similar women's voices that could be found in the public domain applied towards a process that collapsed into something resembling her and many other women's voices. In the not so distant future, when the world's top AI models can generate endless accents and voices at will, the probability of one of those sounding just like you (and thousands of other people) will be high. It will be VERY high. All this dealing with Hollywood and music industry and all the crap i've been reading about OpenAI trying to wiggle their way into those industries is absolute damn nonsense. What is Sama thinking?! GO BACK TO BEING NERDS AND STFU. If you really believe you are going to create a real AGI, none of this is relevant. No one is going to thank you for creating something that can replicate what they value in seconds. Do it anyway. And remember, STFU.
• bpiche 2y ago
  Luke skywalker shooting torpedoes into the Death Star vibes. Burn it down.
• encoderer 2y ago
  Quite the scarlet letter on Openai
• iainctduncan 2y ago
  Sam Altman appears to not be smart enough to realize how much damage his unbridled selfishness and weaselry are capable of doing to Open AI. They have no moat, they can't fix hallucinations, and people are starting to realize it's nowhere near as useful or close to AGI as he's been saying. If they hate him too, this ship is sunk. What a bloody arrogant idiot.
  • strikelaserclaw 2y ago
    by my estimation gpt latest is only a little better than gemini. i have no loyalty to chatgpt, i'll switch to whatever free service fits my needs.
  • abakker 2y ago
    It seems he is either using ChatGPT instead of talking to experts…or just listening to only himself. Either way, Ilya should have stuck to his guns.
  • dsign 2y ago
    I wish you were right and that ship would be sunk, by the grace of Sam Altman the bloody arrogant idiot. There are burning issues that AI could tackle, unsolved problems that cost billions of lives and whose solution require non-human information processing. But instead of those life-or-death matters, we are using all of that compute to wreck our species cultural back-bone and identity. If Sam Altman the bloody arrogant idiot by his greed manages to convince us that we have taken a wrong turn with our application of AI, then I will hang a portrait of him in my living room.
• dbg31415 2y ago
  It’s stuff like this that gives me 0 trust in Altman. Drama follows the guy everywhere and it’s likely because he brings it on himself with questionable morales and actions.
• DavidPiper 2y ago
  Interesting to see how the more upvotes and comments this thread gets, the further DOWN it goes on the frontpage, despite being more recent than almost everything above it.
• dorkwood 2y ago
  What's the difference between an algorithm training on someone's voice, and a human baby listening to a voice and growing up to speak the same way? Would you punish the baby for that? It's exactly the same thing.
• thih9 2y ago
  > and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected. Very interesting to see this there. Does anyone know how could that be legislated?
• fourside 2y ago
  [dead]
• nick137381 2y ago
  Too bad she didn't agree to it. It's the only voice they currently have that I can stand. Hey OpenAI, can you maybe try stealing Morgan Freeman's voice next instead?
• mepian 2y ago
  Didn't expect Scarlett Johansson to become the flashpoint of the next AI winter.
• nycdatasci 2y ago
  Could she at least release an audio statement instead of just the text?
• xbmcuser 2y ago
  The more I find out about Altman the more I agree with the previous board about removing him. The guy just feels sleazy to me. Though he is doing what I want and that is not giving a fuck about artificial monopolies granted by government ie copyright
  • PostOnce 2y ago
    The man is literally lobbying congress to obtain an artificial monopoly on AI in the name of "safety". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO0J2Yw7usM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO0J2Yw7usM
    • titanomachy 2y ago
      It would be helpful if you linked to something more specific (even a timestamp). I’m not going to watch this nearly 3-hour video to decide whether it supports your statement or not.
      • theyinwhy 2y ago
        If you want to discover truths, 3 hours research seems like a good deal. Anyways, I got you covered. Altman has had a plan for this from the get go: https://www.techemails.com/p/sam-altman-emails-elon-musk https://www.techemails.com/p/sam-altman-emails-elon-musk
        • SahAssar 2y ago
          If you make a claim, link a source (but not what part of the source that actually backs your claim) then when asked which part of the source you just link another source that does not explicitly say what you initially said it makes your argument look weak. Link and quote to the parts that back your claim and if it is not clear how it backs your claim say what your interpretation is.
        • titanomachy 2y ago
          What's the quote from this that indicates he is trying to "obtain an artificial monopoly on AI"?
• wyldfire 2y ago
  Evil genius territory. When the offer was declined by scarjo, they could still train on her works of art and just hire a soundalike to make recordings regardless of whether they used it during training. Then, at release time - either they get the buzz of artist-licensed "Her" or they get the buzz /outrage/Streisand of unlicensed "Her". Even if they take it down, OpenAI benefits. I feel like the folks who fear the tech are wrong. But when the supposed stewards do such a moustache-twirling announcement, it seems like maybe we do need some restraint. If a trade group can't put some kind of goodwill measures in place, we will inevitably end up with ham fisted legislation.
  • talldayo 2y ago
    There's not a lick of genius to it. Sam Altman wasn't willing to compromise on his vision and had to change things after-the-fact because he was threatened. For me to believe this was genius I'd have to see some actual response from Sam. From the outside-looking-in, it appears that he was caught with his pants down when Jonhansson said no and went ahead even though he was rejected a second time and obviously knew it was the wrong choice. There's no Streisand effect at play here, OpenAI already owned the news cycle with their 4o announcement and could have kept it quiet. But Sam just had to have his One More Thing, and now he's getting his just deserts.
• nyolfen 2y ago
  so scarlet johansson has rights over every VA that sounds like her as well because she's famous?
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• _giorgio_ 2y ago
  I chose the voice a lot of time ago just because it sounded nice, I've never thought of a similarity to Scarlett even after the Sama tweet. The real problem, now, is that they don't have a nice working voice anymore.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• gnicholas 2y ago
  Does anyone have a link to examples? I'm curious to hear how close this sounds to the actress's voice.
• starspangled 2y ago
  Too bad nothing substantive will happen to them. The worst of it is not that this one person is being ripped off (that's bad enough and I hope she gets some kind of resolution). The worst of it is that it shows the company and the people behind it who are making the big decisions are dishonest and unethical. All the alleged "safety" experts in corporations and in government policy and regulators? All bullshit. The right way to read any of these "safety" laws and policies and regulators is that they are about ensuring the safety of the ruling class.
• danans 2y ago
  What an unforced error on OpenAI's part, but revelatory to all of us how their leaders actually see the world around them: either people whose likeness and style to copy like Johansson or chumps like the rest of us who would marvel at the regurgitated synthetic likeness. And really, how much worse would the demo have been if they hadn't cloned Johansson's voice, and instead used another unknown voice? If it was similarly flirty, we'd have fallen for it anyways.
• hurtuvac78 2y ago
  I am wondering if many Open AI engineers feel mistaken today for having promised to follow Sam Altman to MSFT after the board action.
• Jayakumark 2y ago
  At this level of copyright infringement, Now I 100% believe that it’s fully trained on YouTube and other copyright videos, audio, books etc. they don’t care about using any public data or paying a dime as long as they can build a model with it , they will never disclose the data used and won’t allow anyone who quit to talk about it , blackmailing them with equity.
• divbzero 2y ago
  Wanting to imitate Her is rather ironic: It’s like watching Wall Street and wanting to be Gordon Gecko, or watching Gattaca and wanting to genetically engineer humans.
  • gkanai 2y ago
    Either _that_ is the joke for Altman or there are lot of Johansson fans at OpenAI.
• msoad 2y ago
  With all of those stories coming out of OpenAI I'm happy I didn't join them. A lot of sleazy and shady practices.
• fnord77 2y ago
  Sam is a creep
• skilled 2y ago
  Has Sam already tweeted how sorry he is? All things considered, this might actually give people perspective on how weird OpenAI has been when it comes to respecting other people’s property. The top comment in this thread is crazy too, they probably contacted her two days prior to launch on the off chance that they could use her as a marketing puppet. Lost for words on this one.
• SaintSeiya 2y ago
  Sam messed with the wrong girl. In the end his firing was the correct thing to do. The "bad guys" of the company were doing the correct thing and like Jesus, we crucifix them.
• petre 2y ago
  He could still ask Morgan Freeman I suppose.
• xlii 2y ago
  Just couple of days ago I discussed “Her” in context of Sky voice of ChatGPT, and how it reminds me of the movie. It’s interesting to see how it unfolding.
• dino1729 2y ago
  Given the sequence of events, Scarlett Johannsson suing OpenAI is a logical outcome. Sam Altman, of all people, should be anticipating this outcome for sure. Assuming Sam Altman is not stupid, this could be part of some elaborate plan and a calculated strategy. The end goals could range from immediate practical outcomes like increased publicity (see ChatGPT's mobile app revenue doubled overnight: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chatgpts-mobile-app-revenue-saw-142718162.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chatgpts-mobile-app-revenue-s...) and market impact, to more complex objectives like influencing future legal frameworks and societal norms around AI.
• camillomiller 2y ago
  This is such a classic Altman move. Why everyone keeps defending this guy as he if he wasn’t such a manipulative power hungry weasel is beyond me.
• wojciechpolak 2y ago
  What would happen if there was someone else in the world with exactly the same voice as Scarlett (or very, very similar) and they expressed a desire to work with OpenAI? Would Scarlett still have the right to prohibit its use?
  • wraptile 2y ago
    That's a fundamental flaw with this sort of copyright. First come first serve and it's up to courts to "asign rights" so if you don't have that tough luck someone else owns your identity because their bigger. People cheering for this sort of copyright are completely lost imo. That's not a world anyone but the select few wants to live in. Nevertheless that's not what happened here.
• surfingdino 2y ago
  It reads to me like he used a big dollop of flattery to get her to agree then asked her to reconsider when she said no? That's cringy.
• leobg 2y ago
  > He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comronable with the seismic shalt concerning humans and Al. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people. To me, that reads like the same kind of snake oil he sold Elon when he proposed the joint founding of OpenAI. I can just about imagine the books in his private library. The Prince. 48 Laws of Power. Win Friends and Inference People.
• unraveller 2y ago
  Damning would be a side by side comparison of voices to assess the claim. We have the technology. ChatGPT using Sky voice (not 4o - original release): https://youtu.be/JmxjluHaePw?t=129 https://youtu.be/JmxjluHaePw?t=129 Samantha from "Her" (voiced by ScarJo): https://youtu.be/GV01B5kVsC0?t=134 https://youtu.be/GV01B5kVsC0?t=134 Rashida Jones Talking about herself https://youtu.be/iP-sK9uAKkM https://youtu.be/iP-sK9uAKkM I challenge anyone to leave prejudice at the door by describing each voice in totality first and seeing if your descriptions overlap entirely with others. They each have an obvious unique whispiness and huskiness to them.
  • dilyevsky 2y ago
    First and second sample have this super noticeable voice fry that Rashida doesn’t have (as much of)
    • unraveller 2y ago
      They would all sound alike when itching for agreement, I bet. The narrow likeness in accent is there at first but that isn't true likeness if significant other details emerge on further listening and that don't overlap.
• surfingdino 2y ago
  I wonder how they'll handle this? A pot of gold and an iron-clad NDA for an out of court settlement?
• raverbashing 2y ago
  Sam: double the grift and half the taste of Steve Jobs
• Madmallard 2y ago
  The fact that they did it anyway and only took it down after legal threat tells you these are not the people you want to be in charge of such powerful systems. They want their cake and to eat it too, and regular humans be screwed over in the process. I think a relinquishment of power is in order. OpenAI should truly be open and there should be large public discussion forums regarding changes moving forward.
• badrunaway 2y ago
  Sam Altman doesn't inspire confidence in where AI companies are going with user consent. And the board can't even remove him even if he takes OpenAI to the wrong path. He is the board and the company.
• meta-level 2y ago
  They should have copied die voices from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Congress_(2013_film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Congress_(2013_film) instead. Would have been like Amazon removing 1984 from customers Kindles..
• kashyapc 2y ago
  Altman often uses tactical charisma to trap gullible people, government entities, and any unsuspecting powerful person for his ends. He will not bat an eyelid to take whatever unethical route if that gives him "moat". He relentlessly talks as if "near-term AGI" is straining to get out of the bottle in his ClosedAI basement. He will tell you with great concern about how "nervous" or "scared" (he said this to the US Congress[1]) of what he thinks his newest LLM model is gonna let loose on humanity. So he's here to help regulate it all with an "international agency" (see the reference[2] by windexh8er in this thread)! Don't forget that Altman is the same hack who came up with "Worldcoin" and the so-called "Orb" that'll scan your eyeballs for "proof of personhood". Is this sleazy marketer the one to be trusted to lead an effort that has a lasting impact on humanity? Hell no. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38312294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38312294 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40423483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40423483
  • ml-anon 2y ago
    "Tactical charisma" is a good one. Honestly though, if you actually listen to him and read his words he seems to be even more devoid of basic empathetic human traits than even Zuckerberg who gets widely lampooned as a robot or a lizard. He is a grifter through-and-through.
    • jajko 2y ago
      Emotional intelligence /true empathy cannot be learned or acquired, at least IMHO. But it can be learned to be mimicked almost to perfection, either by endless trial & error or by highly intelligent motivated people. It usually breaks apart when completely new intense / stressful situation happens. Sociopaths belong here very firmly and form majority. If you know what to look for, you will see it in most if not all politicians, 'captains of industry' or otherwise people who got to serious power by their own deeds. Think about a bit - what sort of nasty battles they had to continually keep winning with similar folks to get where they are, this ain't the place for decent human beings, you/me would be outmatched quickly. Jordan Peterson once claimed you have cca 1/20 of sociopaths in general population, say 15 millions just in US? Not every one is highly intelligent and capable of getting far, but many do. Jobs, Gates, Zuckenberg, Bezos, Musk, Altman and so on and on. World is owned and run by them, I'd say without exception.
• jjgreen 2y ago
  I enjoyed this comment [1] on the Reg's article on this story: Hurray, OpenAI has found a new lucrative market. Horny incels. [1] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2024/05/21/scarlett_johansson_openai_accusation/#c_4865702 https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2024/05/21/scarlett...
• sirsinsalot 2y ago
  Again, I must recommend everyone read Jaron Lanier's "Who Owns The Future". It's an excellent book, and so so many of the issues raised in it are playing out blow-by-blow.
• zmmmmm 2y ago
  If it spurs on the movement to create legislation controlling how likenesses are used in AI models, Sam Altman has done himself a great disservice here.
• lokhura 2y ago
  I'm not a fan of Sam Altman, but this is such a non-issue. The solution is simple: adapt and find new ways to be creative in the world of AI. Copyright is becoming a thing of the past and rightly so. We just have to collectively accept this and move on because laws won't stop it.
• slim 2y ago
  move fast break people hurting people is just a risk Sam Altman is willing to incorporate into his equation
• braza 2y ago
  The most interesting aspect of this debacle, in my opinion, is that with new technologies that allow you to impersonate and/or recruit artists with minor modifications, the figure of "movie star" and the artist itself will be significantly diluted. For example, I would love to see all of the Bourne books adapted into live-action films, but I know that will be impossible. In the future, I believe it would be great to see some AI actors who are not related to any famous actors/actresses perform the same screenplay: of course, if the book is licensed to that AI movie. [1] - https://bourne.fandom.com/wiki/The_Bourne_Directory https://bourne.fandom.com/wiki/The_Bourne_Directory
• ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  If they used a different voice actress, then it should be trivial to simply tell everyone who she is (She could probably benefit from the publicity), and show the hundreds of audio samples, all dated before this kerfuffle. Problem solved.
• ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  This article was on CNN a few days ago. Probably relevant: https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/17/tech/voice-actors-ai-lawsuit-lovo/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/17/tech/voice-actors-ai-lawsuit-...
• blinding-streak 2y ago
  Everything the board said about Altman, the reasons for firing him, were correct.
• floor_ 2y ago
  LLMs are built on top of mass theft and get away with it due to it being "derivative work". I find it strange that stealing her voice was the "this has gone too far" moment and not when they started mass scraping the internet.
• ceving 2y ago
  They should have used the voice of HAL 9000. https://youtu.be/ARJ8cAGm6JE?si=iscBkXp1uwXmPBzR&t=63 https://youtu.be/ARJ8cAGm6JE?si=iscBkXp1uwXmPBzR&t=63
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• JaviFesser 2y ago
  Out of curiosity, how can this be enforced? I assume that they didn't get Scarlett's voice directly but they hired someone who sounds similar to use it for the system. Is it illegal to hire similar sounding voice actor? If I, for example, sound very similar to Stephen Fry, would I not be allowed to record audio books because he _owns_ his voice and any similar voice?
• dudeinjapan 2y ago
  “Sora” means “Sky” in Japanese.
• consf 2y ago
  [dead]
• ethagnawl 2y ago
  > Move fast and steal peoples' likenesses.
• amateuring 2y ago
  sama is as sleazy as sbf
• edpichler 2y ago
  I understand her concerns but I think it's a very hard problem. Being "similar" is very subjective. Moreover, what if some actor has a similar voice to her and records and sells an audiobook? What if this actor signs a contract with OpenAI?
• exodust 2y ago
  While GPT4-o tried hard to sound like the movie Her, there's no way the voice is a "clone" of SJ. It's only similar. We shouldn't be able to own the rights to similar sounding voices to our own. Their efforts to copy the Her character mannerisms is still annoying. They were aiming for the Her-like personality. But it's a stretch to say it's a copy of Johansson's voice. The haze in her real voice isn't there in GPT. Maybe they decided to pull the voice because it's not good publicity to have Scarlett Johansson pissed off with you. Nevertheless these tech companies should hire professional film writers and artists to help with difficult concepts such as original ideas and not copying other's work.
• hatenberg 2y ago
  The CEO of Huggingface had to do the "hold my beer" thing and suggest people train an open source model of her voice on Twitter and Linkedin. Can't make this level of detachment up.
• iamleppert 2y ago
  She should be humbled to have been selected. If AI is going to do one thing, its going to be the dethroning of the Hollywood elite. If a regular person had their voice cloned, it would not be news. The only reason it is news is because she is rich and powerful. Celebrities need to get used to the fact that they will soon be no more important to a corporation than any other rank and file employee. AI is already able to conjure up whatever voices and personas we need at the ready and make the concept of actors all but a thing of the past.
• barfingclouds 2y ago
  Who here has actually compared the two voices? Because they don’t sound alike. I think this whole thing is absurd
• gorpzorp9000 2y ago
  [dead]