Open AI Screwed Up

Scarlett Johansson is renowned for her roles in films like “The Avengers” and the award-winning “Marriage Story.” Not to mention the movie “Her,” in which she voices an AI assistant that the lead character ends up falling in love with.

She’s always quite well known for standing up for herself and pursuing legal action against brands like Disney when they breached her Black Widow contract by releasing the film online instead of exclusively in theatres first.

This past week, she’s been the center of a big AI controversy regarding OpenAI’s ChatGPT new voice feature. Remember last week when we wrote about their very flirty female voice assistant? Well, that’s the one that catalyzed all of this week’s drama.

The voice OpenAI named Sky sounded remarkably like Scarlett. Even the founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman, hinted at their similarity by simply tweeting out the word “Her” at the time of Sky’s release. Many linked this tweet to the Scarlett Johansson movie of the same name.

Well — Johansson saw the similarity, too, claiming the voice sounded “eerily similar” to hers. But she also made some startling revelations; she’d actually been asked to be the voice by Sam Altman himself, and she’d turned it down.

Nine months ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman offered Johansson the opportunity to voice ChatGPT, suggesting that her involvement could bridge the gap between technology and creativity, making AI more relatable and comforting to users. Despite the offer's potential, Johansson declined for personal reasons.

One week before the new voice was made public, Sam contacted Johansson’s team again to ask her to reconsider.

When OpenAI released the new ChatGPT voice, Sky, Johansson, and those close to her were struck by the similarities. Johansson released a public statement outlining everything that had happened and stating that the resemblance was so uncanny that it deceived her friends and the general public.

In response to the backlash, OpenAI denied any intentional likeness. The company explained that Sky, along with other new voices, was created using professional voice actors. They’d said they could not reveal the identity of the original actors for privacy concerns.

OpenAI asserted that the voice actor behind Sky was selected before any outreach to Johansson and emphasized that their policy is against deliberately mimicking a celebrity’s distinctive voice. Despite these assurances, the controversy prompted OpenAI to pause the use of Sky's voice out of respect for Johansson and to address her concerns.

The story has been terrible for Open AI’s public perception. It’s not good when a great number of the public believe the most notable startup in AI may have stolen their main voice from an actor who once voiced one in a movie.

The key thing this story may have highlighted, though, is how difficult it will be for the eventual winners of the AI race to differentiate themselves. Apple and Samsung can compete on the form factor, the features, and the materials in their new phones.

If the finish line for AI is a virtual voice assistant who can do anything and everything for you and even talk to you with any voice you wish, then — well, won’t they all end up being pretty much the same thing?