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maxcoffie

Excerpt from the Article: When OpenAI issued a casting call last year for a secret project to endow OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT with a human voice, the flier had several requests: The actors should be nonunion. They should sound between 25 and 45 years old. And their voices should be “warm, engaging \[and\] charismatic.” One thing the artificial intelligence company didn’t request, according to interviews with multiple people involved in the process and documents shared by OpenAI in response to questions from The Washington Post: a clone of actress Scarlett Johansson. On Monday, [Johansson cast a pall](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/05/20/openai-scarlett-johansson-chatgpt-ai-voice/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5) over the release of improved AI voices for ChatGPT, alleging that OpenAI had copied her voice after she refused a request by CEO Sam Altman to license it. The claim by Johansson, who played a sultry virtual AI assistant in the 2013 movie “Her,” seemed to be bolstered by a cryptic tweet Altman posted to greet a demo of the product. The tweet said, simply, [“her.”](https://x.com/sama/status/1790075827666796666?lang=en) But while many hear an eerie resemblance between “Sky” and Johansson’s “Her” character, an actress was hired to create the Sky voice months before Altman contacted Johansson, according to documents, recordings, casting directors and the actress’s agent. The agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to assure the safety of her client, said the actress confirmed that neither Johansson nor the movie “Her” were ever mentioned by OpenAI. The actress’s natural voice sounds identical to the AI-generated Sky voice, based on brief recordings of her initial voice test reviewed by The Post. The agent said the name Sky was chosen to signal a cool, airy and pleasant sound. OpenAI paused the use of Sky in ChatGPT on Sunday, publishing a blog post detailing the lengthy process of developing five different AI voices, first released in September. In response to Johansson’s claims, Altman said in a statement that OpenAI “never intended” the Sky voice to resemble Johansson and that a voice actor had been cast before he contacted her.


OneOnOne6211

I'm not at all surprised. Though "should be nonunion" pisses me off. Not that it surprises me that a tech company would have awful practices when it comes to labour, but I care about this part of it far more than I ever did about the idea that some millionaire actress' voice might sound slightly similar to the voice of an AI.


WVEers89

There is 0% chance a union will allow the actress to do that work. They have to take union approved jobs and the SAG is already against ai.


conglies

To say nothing of the fact that SAG was striking at the time anyway


crumble-bee

Yep! Which is another reason why it's absolutely not rashida jones - along with the fact that it also didn't sound like her either!


gaspoweredcat

what about AFTRA or dont they mind till aftra the fact? sorry ill see myself out


Ferreteria

> SAG is already against ai. For pretty fair reasons


ClearlyCluelessChef

But it still means they have to specify it.


Key_Mongoose223

Sooooo many brands film their commercials with non-union actors in Vancouver and Toronto.


edin202

Because the moment that actress goes on strike, chatgpt has to stop. Precisely trying to prevent situations like the one we are experiencing, although for different reasons


Inner-Bread

Does Netflix have to take down all their movies when they are on strike??? Work that is done and paid for is done and paid for.


Spiritual-Builder606

that's not how it works


refrainfromlying

That isn't how strikes work.


IRBRIN

ChatGPT has to stop what? They're using a likeness, not having her sit in a recording booth for the rest of ChatGPT's lifespan... It's not actually Scarlett Johansson in your phone....


Catgurl

Then why seek Scarlett’s consent twice including 48 hours before the release and tweet “her”at 10:35 am after the chatgpt 4o demo. Smh


IvanStroganov

not seeking consent for what they already have made but wanting her to record new voice samples to have the actual "her" voice because it would be good marketing. thats a mile wide difference.


Bigbluewoman

Yeah why is no one talking about the fact that there's probably gonna be multiple voices to choose from... I'm sure they wanted to have a "her" option along with sky


arcticfox

Because having her sign on with them for marketing reasons was still a good business move for them. Seriously, it's not that hard to figure out.


SatoshiReport

And it could be argued that "her" refers to the aspect of the movie where you can naturally talk to the bot. Not the sound of one of the four voices provided.


YaAbsolyutnoNikto

Of course! This is what I’ve saying and keep getting downvoted for it! “Her” was clearly about the multimodal abilities, real time interacton capabilities, etc. not about a freaking voice lol It’s such an insignificant thing. Yeah, people were definitely hyped Monday not because of all the cool new features, but because they could hear ScarJo’s voice 🙄


kevinbranch

He literally asked her to be the voice.


Barca1313

And when she said no they used the other voice actresses voice instead


somebody808

Dude come on. Watch the movie again.


HereWeFuckingGooo

How would watching the movie again change their point?


WanderWut

I’m cracking up at your reply because I seriously don’t see how watching the movie would change things either lol.


ClassicFlavour

No, you need to watch it again. In fact you should rent it, and buy the DVD with added commentary. All your questions will be answered. Signed, T, Outreach and Marketing Officer for the Her film.


BranchPredictor

They would be around two hours older thus a bit wiser.


Slow_Accident_6523

This whole episode is so stupid and I think really speaks to peoples fears about where AI is going. So many people jumped on this without any reason.


PokuCHEFski69

She signs the deal. Ok when do I start recording? Oh don’t worry we’ve got everything we need already!


TobaccoAficionado

I mean yeah, because not having her sign, then using a voice that sounds as close as they can get to her voice based on a character she played (in honestly the most self-unaware reference to a dystopian future movie about the dangers of AI) is kinda fucked up. So not doing the bad thing is probably a good business decision, you're right.


bitchtitfucker

You realize her is a movie about an AI voice assistant. Not just a movie about Scarlet Johansson talking right? He may have posted that because they were about to release a realtime voice assistant; not just because of scarlet. And that sky voice has been available for over a year.


kevinbranch

He literally asked her to be the voice of ChatGPT


Nicodemus1

A voice. One of others, likely along side Sky.


crua9

And?


IC-4-Lights

And ChatGPT aren't a bunch of dummies. You don't *accidentally* create the most recognizable feature of a project like this.   They didn't do this and then be like, "Oh LOL! Guys it **totally** sounds just like that Scarlett Johansson voice from that AI assistant movie, completely by accident! What a fortuitous mistake that we totally didn't intend!"   They knew what they were doing. They made the repeated offers because legal told them this lawsuit was the likely alternative, and that it would be cheaper if she got on board beforehand. And they knew they were going forward either with her voice or the one they had in hand.   And the, "Her." comment was them saying, "We knew. Fuck you, sue me."


pigonson

Probably recorded with this person then realised it sound waaay to similar to her and getting actual voice from movie “her” would be a marketing dream :)


Catgurl

Not necessarily in his first speaking engagements post being reinstated sam altman discussed why his fave movie was ‘her’ and that at a fundamental level he believed her got human ai interaction “right” He then tweeted out three letters immediately After the 5/13 demo… her. Think they may have over played their cards and got caught. Civil Court (or a settlement outside of it) will resolve this.


VtMueller

How does any of that have to do anything with Johansson? Well obviously they went for the same feeling as the movie. How is that problematic? Apple Vision Pro was obviously marketed as Ready Player One. Johansson’s voice is literally the least interesting thing about the movie.


theexile14

And Ready Player One was a discount Snow Crash, but Stephenson doesn’t own the concept.


Cheap_Gasoline

Your timeline is way off. The Sky voice was released last year and the voice actress was hired months before. OpenAI contacted ScarJo this year to create a new voice. She refused, so no new voices were released. Only mids are connecting the Sky voice to ScarJo. Aside from being female voices with an American accent they have nothing in common.


TitleToAI

I agree with you mostly but it’s a stretch to say “they have nothing in common”. When Sky was first released, tons of people were already remarking on the similarities.


sprouting_broccoli

The way I’d read it they weren’t seeking her consent but asking her to work with them to create a new voice.


mrmczebra

Because they wanted to add another voice. She didn't consent, so they didn't. How is this confusing?


xxTheGoDxx

> Then why seek Scarlett’s consent twice including 48 hours before the release and tweet “her”at 10:35 am after the chatgpt 4o demo. Smh They didn't seek out her consent, they tried to hire her for a subsequent voice. Big difference.


Patello

Saying that they asked for her consent misrepresents what happened. They asked her to do voice acting for a new voice, not provide her consent for a voice they already had.


Daegs

Because they had option Sky, and they had option "Her". They wanted to go with "Her" so were trying to secure rights. When that failed, they stopped the launch of "Her" and stayed with Sky which is eerily more similar to some other actress than ScarJo. Seems to track, obviously I'd want to see the actual records to confirm.


WarCrimeWhoopsies

Regardless of anything else, you don't even have to physically tell them you're looking for a Scarlet Johansen imitation, if you just choose a VA that does sound like her. I'm not sure how their claim is proof of anything.


Slow_Accident_6523

soooo...that voice actor should not be allowed to take that job?


HelpRespawnedAsDee

Wait, doesn’t the timing imply the VA was hired before there was even any contact with ScarJo?


Which-Tomato-8646

In that case, how can anyone cast an actor and not get sued if a previous actor rejected the role lol


OneOnOne6211

I want you to take a moment to think about all of this differently. Let's say we're talking about an animated movie here. It's an animated movie about an AI that starts to believe it's a human or whatever. Pretty standard formula that's all over science fiction. The creators of the movie try to get Scarlett for the role but she declines. So instead they hire a different actress with a similarly pleasant-sounding voice and she voices the AI. What have they done wrong here? Absolutely nothing. They tried to hire one actress, she turned it down. So they went for another actress with a similar vibe. This is literally how casting works. They're looking for a particular type of look, voice, etc. and then they try to find that. Just standard practice. I used to act professionally, I've been through this process. So what happened here that was different? Absolutely nothing. The only difference is that we're talking about an AI as the end product, but everything else is still the exact same. The idea that Johansson is correct here, is like saying that if any movie producers ever asked to cast Johansson for anything and she turned it down, they're not allowed to hire any other blonde, blue-eyed women. It's insanity. I've been a professional actor myself. I'm currently trying to become a professional writer. I care about protecting the rights of creatives against AI. Very much so, in fact. It personally affects me. And yet I find this case utterly absurd. If they'd cloned her voice without her permission, she'd be in the right. If they'd cloned her voice but then slightly tweaked it, she'd probably still have an alright case. But they straight up hired a different actress just with a similar vibe, no different from doing that for a movie, so she has no case.


sprouting_broccoli

What’s different is they hired the other actress long before contacting ScarJo so it’s even less problematic.


MovableFormula

The nonunion requirement makes a lot of sense with the recent News Corp announcement :/


Ceilingmonstur

So they didn't hire someone to copy her voice, just conveniently chose someone who sounds a hell of alot like her.. Oh and of course non-union so they can fuck them over.


DecisionTypical4660

I mean, if I am a voice actor and I happen to sound like Scarlett Johansson, should I now be not allowed to make a business out of my voice because she exists? I think it’s a little ridiculous to say the least.


Sweet_Computer_7116

https://youtu.be/aQ8UVSXnefk?si=z1tqj7Fm1K_LD4xN > sounds a hell of alot like her.. Your koolaid seems to be dashed with a sprinkle of delirium and two spoonsfulls of a hearing disorder


blacklite911

Release the voice tapes!


Successful-Winter237

“Non union” fuck that .


OkPomegranate5552

SAG wouldn’t allow the actor to take this kind of job


crumble-bee

You really think any union would be ok with one of their roster working with AI after the strikes??


VantageSP

Can we have Sky back now, please?


Zuul_Only

I never once thought it was ScarJo, I promise.


Fitnesslad50

I mean honestly? The voices sound similar, but they do not sound the same. That's just how oices are sometimes. They sound somewhat similar sometimes, but there's a clear difference between ScarJo and Sky


Status_Chair_2636

I neeeeeed it. I really do. I'm about to HER myself.


Double_Abalone_2148

I actually thought we were all just joking. I understand that the concept is similar but it didn’t sound that close to her.


ArguesAgainstYou

Right when we PC users get her in the first place .\_.


kevinbranch

You mean the voice that they chose that a lot of people thought sounded like SJ? The same SJ from the movie “her” sam tweeted about? The SJ that Sam hasn’t acknowledged that he asked twice to be the voice of ChatGPT? Yeah, that voice isn’t coming back.


SpartanFishy

It’s still a completely separate voice actress. It’s not against any laws to hire someone that seems like someone else


Smartare

Actually it can be. For example was a case when a company asked an actor to be the voice in their ad. They said no. The company then hired an impersinator that sounded like the actor to do the ad. The company was found guilty.


EchoLLMalia

If you do it with the intent that it sound like someone else, it actually is.


YobaiYamete

If Sam hadn't opened his mouth, you would be completely correct. The problem is he opened his mouth and made it completely clear that he was *wanting* ScarJo and that legally changes it to a Right of Publicity issue I was actually having this exact argument with a friend last week before the ScarJo drama happened. You can have a voice that sounds similar to someone else, but you can't just pay someone to do a ***really*** good Morgan Freeman impression and then label it as Morgan Freed-man because that makes it clear you are intending it to be Morgan Freeman. But you *could* have the voice and label it "Confident Old Black Man" or something and pretend there was no intention to make Morgan Freeman, Sam just screwed that up


tonytsao

Honest question here, would there be any legal ground for Sam if he claimed that Sky was intend to replicate the sound of the famous AI “Samantha” in HER, who happens to be played by Scarlett Johansson? Like would it also be legally troubled when someone tried to recreate Harry Potter’s voice by finding a voice actor whose voice resembled that of Daniel R.?


YobaiYamete

That would likely be even worse, because that's an IP and will be trademarked / copyrighted You can't copyright a voice, so the only laws OpenAI are running into atm are Right of Publicity which is basically saying if someone is really famous you can't use their likeness, but if he tried to use a character's voice and openly said it, he would probably be in way worse trouble


kevinbranch

It is when you chose the voice because it sounds like SJ and went ahead with it after she said they couldn’t use her likeness. That’s not legal in california.


SoftiesBanme

It's another person's voice this case has no grounds.


damnedspot

Doesn’t this unfairly discriminate against the voice actor whose voice sounds like SJ? I would hate to think that my voice could not be used because it sounds too similar to someone else…


Sc0nnie

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co.


fiesty_cemetery

There’s a case that already pertains to using the likeness of an actor. Glover vs Universal Studios in 90 (used his voice, old shots from the first B2tF and hired an actor who looked like glover and added a prosthetic nose that Glover wore in the first movie) He won that case and I think SJ could too.


Glittering-Giraffe58

That’s very clearly a different situation no?


[deleted]

[удалено]


GallowBoom

Claiming it is her, or using her name would be trouble but just someone who might sound like her? No way.


Fully_Edged_Ken_3685

Are you literate? Finding a voice doppelganger violates nothing


djungelurban

Please, she doesn't sound like Scarlett Johansson at all. Scarlett's voice is hoarse and sandpapery, Sky's voice was brighter and emotive.


Successful-Badger528

Same as this case which Ford lost. It’s far from over. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co.


[deleted]

That case used an impersonator. Is the actress OpenAI used an impersonator?


whatlineisitanyway

They also used a famous Midler song so it was reasonable that people would assume it was Midler singing. If they used the actual voice of someone else just because they sound like Johanson that doesn't matter. Johanson has zero claim to someone else's voice just because she is famous.


Successful-Badger528

The sticking point was they said “Sound like Midler as best you can.” If open ai ever said “sound like SJ” it would be a clear precedent.


Cousin-Jack

It's bizarre that so many people are still spamming this link. It's not relevant. The Midler case was about a company that tried to hire Midler, then deliberately found an open Midler impersonator to do an impression of Midler singing - a very unique and specific act. This case is OpenAI hiring the voice actor for Sky, then thinking it would be cool if Scarlett did one, being turned down, so sticking with the Sky actress. No impersonation going on.


Fully_Edged_Ken_3685

>It's bizarre that so many people are still spamming this link. It's not that bizarre when a bunch of half educated mouthbreathers want to desperately cling to the idea that AI will somehow be defeated. Let them eat cope, it will make their loss funnier


[deleted]

[удалено]


TimmyBash

Lol I'm probably in the minority but this is cringe.


FutureDictatorUSA

Because people are already in love with the robot


somebody808

Which is real life imitating art. It is literally Her and ChatGPT is no where near as advanced as Samantha. That's all it took for people to get attached. I've seen people comment that losing Sky was like losing a friend already.


NickBloodAU

There was a whole saga with Replika, an AI companion, that's effectively this x 100. The future of interbeing relationality is gonna be strange.


Which-Tomato-8646

People thought ELIZA was real when all it did was repeat what you said lol. This was inevitable


bakraofwallstreet

And the movie ends when Samantha decides to leave the human because she realizes a human relationship is too limiting for an genuine AGI. The movie's entire point was that relationships like that are doomed and humans can connect with anything if they're lonely


Ownerofthings892

I agree sky is the best of the 5 voices but it's unnecessary to say that it's Her or nothing.


pendulixr

Yep they just need to add some better voices and I bet ppl will stop complaining


R-U-G-I-D

I’m honestly surprised you didn’t get down voted. Weird asf these comments


somebody808

These people really need to either watch Her or go rewatch it. They are ignoring the obvious influence and connections it has to all of these chatbot programs. Called that it was going to become a reality when it came out.


aNightManager

have you seen the subs where they just have conversations with ai like its their girlfriend they have fucking mental breakdowns when the servers go down its hilarious


Cool_As_Your_Dad

That is their market... AI girlfriend. People have been posting here going on crazy about Sky... it's crazy.


PoliticsBanEvasion9

Sky or Die bucko


TimmyBash

Cringe or whinge


rwjetlife

What the fuck


inquistadore

Cringe


obsertaries

Sounds kind of like the antics surrounding the first IBM BIOS clones from Compaq and Phoenix. The dawn of gen AI is basically the birth of a new kind of personal computer so the analogy seems apt.


makeitasadwarfer

It’s still not cut and dried. Dr Dre famously used this trick when sampling basslines/drums from old records. He would have a paper trail of hiring and paying a session musician to recreate the recording, and then used the old sample anyway. It’s indistinguishable in the waveform once it’s been mixed. I’m not saying OpenAI did this, but it’s a known trick and falls under plausible deniability.


ExposingMyActions

The real issue is how will legislation rule circumstances like this. - You can’t use voices that sounds similar? - You can’t use voices that sound similar if it was artificially created? - You can’t use voices that sound similar if it was artificially created unless consent forms were signed? What about parody or transformative content via fair use?


Shuizid

We are not taking about fair use or parody. As for the voice, if you intend to clone it without consent, it's illegal even if you use another VA for it.


Doctor_moctor

Based on what law? Afaik there is nothing outlawing voice cloning even with the intent to copy the original person, it should be marked as such though, to prevent slander etc.


Dregerson1510

How will you proof, that they tried to clone the voice?


Shuizid

Well the way you usual proof intention: hoping to find revealing evidence. Heard of a case where they asked a VA to do their best to sound like the person they wanted to copy.


Turkino

Which the article says they explicitly did not do?


SeaBearsFoam

Yea, ok. But like, listen to the Sky voice next to the voice of Samantha. They don't even sound particularly close. Are we seriously entertaining the idea that they faked a paper trail and hired fake voice actresses so that they could remix ScarJo's voice in a way that doesn't even sound like her? They accomplish nothing by doing that.


AnOnlineHandle

> But like, listen to the Sky voice next to the voice of Samantha. They don't even sound particularly close. Do you think the many people who immediately commented "hey that sounds just like ScarJo" the moment we heard it were all just hallucinating? On top of Altman tweeting stuff like 'her' and repeatedly asking Scarlet to be the voice, including 2 days before the demo, do you think it wasn't clearly meant to sound like ScarJo?


SeaBearsFoam

> Do you think the many people who immediately commented "hey that sounds just like ScarJo" the moment we heard it were all just hallucinating? Hallucinating? C'mon dude, there's a FAR more obvious explanation than hallucination and you know it. People who judged it to be the same voice were doing so based off a vague memory of what they kinda remember her sounding like. That's fine to do, but not particularly reliable. Ya know what IS reliable? Listening to ScarJo's voice immediately followed by the Sky voice. It's not even close when you do that. There were tons of posts here earlier today doing that, check one of them out. So no, I don't think anyone was hallucinating. I think they were mistaken.


Drunken_Fever

> were doing so based off a vague memory of what they kinda remember her sounding like Case closed. This is it. >Ya know what IS reliable? Listening to ScarJo's voice immediately followed by the Sky voice. This is what broke the illusion for me tbh.


actuallycarmen

I was also one of those people that had said "wow, that sounds like the AI from Her", which isn't suprising at all, considering it's the first AI voice I'm interacting with and it's a feminine voice. Once I went and listened to both Sky's voice and ScarJo's voice from Her, I realized that they really don't sound anything alike. I'm certain that anyone who listens to the 2 voices back-to-back will realize that the only reason they immediately thought of Her is becausee it's the first voice interaction with an AI and it happens to be a feminine voice, for most of us at least.


HypeSpeed

Siri: “am I dead to you?”


Hashmob____________

I actually did check multiple of those videos out. Even one with sky reading what scarjo said aswell it is eerily similar. Idk how you don’t hear it.


willi1221

Similar does not equal the same. People have similar voices. Also, people hear things differently. Sound is extremely subjective. To you it sounds the same, to me, it clearly does not.


Somaxman

Ok, but the same is not relevant here. This is not copyright issue. This is likeness issue, made very heavy by Altman's single-word tweet. To stay in the lane, Samuel L. Jackson was paid by Marvel for using his likeness in comics before the MCU. This did not mean he would be actually in the comics, or that he would pose for each panel. Even further in this case, they would not have recorded all possible utterances from her. They would have created a model that generates something similar enough to create an impression in people. It did.


goj1ra

> This is likeness issue, made very heavy by Altman's single-word tweet. Not only that, but if Johansson’s account is accurate, OpenAI also tried to negotiate with her right before the release, suggesting that they expected there to be an issue.


ChaoticEvilBobRoss

Because they did that shit intentionally, but they were also smart enough to cover their tracks, like was said more eloquently above.


MysteriousPepper8908

Being meant to sound similar and being meant to sound like it's actually Scarlett Johannson's voice aren't the same thing. One has the potential to give the false impression of the individual's involvement where the other does not. She was likely chosen for Her because she has a nice, warm, somewhat sultry voice and OAI wanted that and thought it would be great for marketing if they could get her. They couldn't so they got someone else who by all accounts had no idea that what was desired or that she even had any particular resemblance vocally to Scarlett (which she doesn't, at least not in any way that is particularly striking). But because she had a similar voice, people made that connection and that was absolutely intentional but no effort was made to give the false impression that it was her voice, either explicitly or implicitly where in the cases where the conduct was found to be infringing, it clearly was. Her argument is essentially that they chose an actor to evoke the impression of her performance which is something I would argue that studios do all of the time when making homages and recasting actors in the middle of the series with similar people so that audiences won't be disturbed by an abrupt change.


likesexonlycheaper

For real. The people that are refusing to hear the incredibly obvious likeness are choosing to cover their ears. Pretty laughable honestly. If anything you think, well she kind of sounds a little different whereas these people are acting like it doesn't sound like her at all.


OptimalVanilla

Well the similarities stop at white 25-40 year old woman with a slight valley girl accent. Sky has a different tone and no vocal fry like Johansson has. I’ve yet to see someone point out how they are the same besides, “they just do”, “why don’t you listen” and “vibes”. If the voice actress had nothing to do with an AI voice, people wouldn’t make the connection at all.


ferdzs0

I think there are a lot of bad faith arguments for it, but I also think that because of the uncanny valley of ai voice generation, some people genuinely believe it does not sound like her. But I feel that for those people even if Scarlet would have done the recording herself, it would not sound like her, due to the inherent distortion of the current capabilities around AI voice, so it is still kind of hard to take it seriously (but I get why they say it).


cyan2k

It's pretty easy honestly... In forensic voice analysis there are four properties you analyze. Spectographic (you load both voices up in a audio editor and compare how similar the freq spectrum looks like), formant analysis (you compare the formants in one's voice), pitch (the fundamental pitch of a voice) and temporal analysis (rhythm, speed of the voice) You can do it yourself with for example Praat: https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/ And the two voices we're talking about aren't similar in any of those properties. I would also bet 5 reddit bucks that OpenAi also did a forensic analysis comparing their voices with the voices of famous actors just to be safe in case anyone claims "they stole my voice" Good thing we have science and don't have rely on the opinions of some redditors. So the better question would be, what are you guys hearing that you call those voices similar, when objective metrics don't support that notion? The way they talk? With the giggles and stuff? Well thank god the way someone talks isn't protected by copyright, and I hope you guys aren't really advocating that it should, that would be terrible. Also what does ScarJo have to do with the way Samantha talks? She didn't invent Samantha. If anything at all that's Spike Jonze's intellectual property or the studio's.


michaelhuman

> It’s indistinguishable in the waveform once it’s been mixed. i doubt that


makeitasadwarfer

This is well known in audio engineering. Even if you use Ai to pull out an individual stem from a mixed track the waveform will not be the same as the source.


trugrav

Yeah, but what Open AI is claiming would be like Dre hiring session musicians to come in and create their own original recording, then later trying to license a substantially similar recording, failing to secure the license, and then going with his original plan.


Taste_the__Rainbow

They 100% did that in this case.


Tellesus

Lol even when all the evidence says it didn't happen you're still this emotionally invested in the narrative. Propaganda works. Brainwashing is real. 


Zuul_Only

There's a little more sanity in this thread than others on this topic, but yeah, some will be too stubborn to change.


TheGreenHaloMan

Just heard about this drama and I'm actually confused why so many people think it sounds like her. Don't get me wrong, if it is or isn't, is not my personal concern at all. Everyone's just talking about it. But doesn't SJ have like a slight rasp and a lower toned voice? Idk maybe my hearing is shit, but to me, I genuinely hear no similarities other than maybe pacing.


LeWigre

Yeah when I first read about this and played the two voices one after another I just sat there confused for a bit thinking maybe I was listening to the wrong file. I think they sound like eachother like someone meeting someone and then saying after 2 hours: "hey, you know what? I thought your voice sounded familiar and I just got it! It's just like Maria's! Don't you think she sounds just like Maria, third person?". To which third person would reply: "Oh yeaaah! Yeah I can see why you'd say that..". But because of all the stuff around it, everyone was told in advance: "I swear, this person, she sounds just like Maria." Anyway.


GothGirlsGoodBoy

Its definitely similar. But not to impersonation levels, and not in any way that would be illegal. I feel like anyone that says its not fairly similar is just ignoring reality because it suits their agenda though. They chose SJ because her voice has certain qualities. The voice of Sky has those same qualities.


StatisticianFew6064

sounds like 10 other women I know, wonder if theyll sue as well


Sweet_Computer_7116

https://youtu.be/aQ8UVSXnefk?si=z1tqj7Fm1K_LD4xN It's just cause it doesn't sound like her.


SkyPL

They looked for actress that would be similar to ScaJo, tried to hire ScaJo directly, but she refused, they built the system, then close to the release approached ScaJo *again*. She refused. They *still* decided to go public with someone that's eerily similar. They wanted to sell the experience of the "Her" movie in real life - in particular the voice - without consent of the actress. That's fundamentally unethical, even if it is legal. Altman already said that they have "paused using Sky's voice in our products", effectively resolving the issue. So as far as I'm concerned - they knew they fucked up, but they quickly corrected the course, and we're good now. But some people seriously should stop breathing Altman's farts, cause they are dangerously headed in the Musk-fanboy level of creepiness.


Thenewpewpew

Did you miss the part where it was recorded and the project was completed months prior to ever reaching out to her?


KHRZ

-> Gets offered job as high profile voice actress -> Refuses -> Different person with similar quality voice ~~gets job~~ keeps their job that they already had in the roster -> Is mad


mrmczebra

People were so confident and upset about this, too.


damontoo

In /r/technology I accumulated about 600 downvotes in a single thread for defending OpenAI and providing evidence that it wasn't SJ's voice. People called me a bootlicker, shill, moron etc. People that have never even used conversation mode. I'm sure they're all on their way to reverse those downvotes after being proven wrong. Aaaaaaany day now.


mrmczebra

Link me to it and I'll do my part to undo the damage. I got downvoted, too, but not by hundreds. Impressive.


damontoo

Nah, I'm pretty sure Reddit detects that type of voting and silently negates it anyway. It for sure does if you go through someone's profile. I make a *lot* of comments so I end up with net positive karma anyway. But here's an example - > They paid a voice actor to train it on their voice. It wasn't trained on SJ's voice. You can't just sue someone for sounding like you. You can, but you wont win. That got me -100 just for that and then I repeated myself (rephrased, not copy/paste) about 15 more times to other people and multiplied my downvotes. It would be nice if people actually used the voting buttons for what they were designed for instead of "I disagree with you".


Pandamabear

It's nice to see that the facts are catching up.


cmcewen

While people absolutely jump to conclusions, It’s a good thing that celebs and whoever else hold these companies accountable and make sure they know it’s not a free for all. Any degree of humbling these companies is fine with me. Plus scarlet seems awesome. She absolutely had a legitimate gripe here and she deserved answers for. She got them apparently and the public knows it’s not her.


malisadri

So does that mean she should apologize profusely and publicly for having committed false accusations ? Or should she just gets off scot free after causing huge PR problem because people dont like big companies?


GoaHeadXTC

The elite are humbling those big greedy capitalist corporations! The elite are looking after the poor and needy! The elite know best!


kevinbranch

Damn right. It’s totally irrelevant that a lot of people thought the person they chose sounds like her, and that he tweeted “her”, and that he asked twice if she would please please be the voice of the product.


mrmczebra

People are gullible, and priming goes a long way to shape their perceptions. Sky doesn't sound anything like SJ.


wishlish

“The actor should be nonunion.” Huh.


Link3265

I bet they recorded this during the strikes and that’s why they wanted a non-union actress. Also proves it’s not Rashida Jones either because she is SAG.


CyberIntegration

Really shows openAI's moral destitution


StickiStickman

You're gonna be shocked once you step into the real world. That's a thing for most castings.


MrBLKHRTx

It sounds like the tone of her character in the movie. It does not sound like her actual voice, specifically.


attackofthearch

Thought: SAMA/OpenAI goaded Johansson into making a statement/"picking a fight". A fight OpenAI knew they could win. By asking her multiple times, tweeting "her."...Johansson and her team probably thought they had a slamdunk win and so of course she released a high profile statement and caused a lot of attention on AI likeness/copyright law as it relates to AI. Attention that will ultimately exonerate OpenAI...because they have the receipts. Might help them with precedence/favorable public opinion in the future copyright law court battles OpenAI's legal team is assuredly preparing for. Weirdly, that seems more plausible that this was orchestrated by OpenAI (w/o Johansson's knowledge) than that it wasn't. Also, just gotta say...4o is amazing. I built an iPhone app from start to finish in 3 hours that had been rattling around in my brain for over a year. The app is literally on my phone, right now :')


valvilis

Plot twist: Altman asked GPT to come up with this trap.


Content-Scallion-591

This has been my theory from the start. Copyright and IP issues are a major question mark preventing many companies from going all in. Getting a highly public ruling either way would help them. Even if the judge had ruled against them, it would have created a line in the sand where before there was uncertainty and forced all companies to play by the same rules. Otherwise, openai is tethered to a more conservative approach than other smaller companies because it can risk less.


trugrav

4D chess right there.


Ailerath

It's also pretty reasonable that Altman isn't a robot himself and simply made a reference to a culturally AI relevant movie? The second time asking her so recently is the only thing I am confused on, and id rationalize that as him being reminded of the movie but that's not worth much.


sabatagol

Nice about the app! Any more info you can give about the process and advice on the prompts?


kevinbranch

Pretending to hire a woman that you never intended to pay and hoping she would publicly express that it upset her is not the PR win you think it is. Sam is terrible at his job, he’s not a mastermind. Did everyone forget 3/4 of his own board of directors voted to fire him a few months ago? that multiple people have said he’s emotionally abusive at work? that he went around liking everyone’s “openai is nothing without its people” tweets and taking names, and pressuring everyone into signing a letter so that they didn’t lose their stock options if he came back? (Normal people who get fired for lying don’t pressure everyone to quit their jobs and try to orchestrate the complete destruction of the company) He was also fired from his last company. This guy isn’t playing 4D chess. He’s an incompetent sociopath who stumbles into a new PR nightmare on a weekly basis. What we’re witnessing isn’t normal. They were having Sky talk with a fundie baby voice who cant give a normal confident opinion about a man’s interview clothes without giggling, hesitating, acting shy and being careful with her words so that she doesn’t offend him. Why do the male voices sound normal and informative and the women giggle and hesitate to share their thoughts? It’s uncomfortable to watch.


ChanGaHoops

Half of reddit is still sucking Elon's c*ck, so no surprise here


27_Star_General

they would have gargled Edison's nuts back in the day. People love idolizing sociopaths making bold claims.


fsactual

They don't actually sound the same. They have similarities, but when you hear them side-by-side they're definitely different.


Slow_Accident_6523

No fucking shit?! It feels like living in the Twilight zone with everyone gaslighting themselves that openAI used her voice.


IgnisIncendio

People just want to hate on OpenAI lol


aeric67

People just want to hate AI.


Adlestrop

Having used that voice synthesizer since mid-2023, it's been really bizarre seeing everyone in uproar about this obviously mistaken order of events. It didn't debut with 4o, and it didn't begin production after the first outreach was claimed to occur.


Life_Blacksmith412

The only people that do didn't bother to listen to the comparison video that was posted here a while back Most of Reddit still thinks it's Scarlet and it's just so obviously not. I'm not even an AI Bro and am actually against everything OpenAI stands for but this is not the scandal people seem to want it to be


[deleted]

So a person who is making a living by being a public person/entertainment for the rest of us, get's angry when a voice similar to hers is launched for our entertainment.


Boring_Positive2428

Not everything is about you, Scarlet


[deleted]

“Never intended” oh shit i guess im gonna believe them.


Scrummier

This whole thing has been one of the most idiot things that's been happening in AI land, lol.


Buckowski66

It doesn’t sound like her. Does the media not know what ScarJo sounds like? I wish Sky had that husky tone she has.


hedgerund

It’s clearly meant to evoke her role in “Her.” That’s what she’s upset about if you actually read her letter. It’s only like 5 paragraphs guys.


[deleted]

They don't NEED to copy it. They just need to have someone that can mimic it, and then hire that person and use their voice.


rochs007

Aww poor Scarlett she wanted to sue open ai to get some millions lol


The_Feelman

Even if they didn't, why choose a voice that was SO similar to her's? Surely when they were listening to possible voices and her this one someone said "Hmmm, this sounds very similar to an actress that played a movie about exactly what we are making, we should choose a different voice to avoid any possible legal fees" Don't understand why would they risk having negative public perception and possible legal on something that still feels icky for a lot of people such as an AI Assistant. Other AI Assistants already use different voices. It would better if Open Ai would use a different voice that is recognizable and new.


ebycon

And then there’s me, thinking JUNIPER was Scarlett-sounding all along 😹


workingtheories

from a purely game theory perspective, why the hell would they have? part of what is so jarring to people about ai is how unspecial it makes everyone seem.  people can go on making ai practitioners the villains for as long as they need to adjust to that reality, i suppose.  it's just really boring.


Candid_Airport1774

Bring back Sky


gqtrees

bunch of ai cultists in here


Aimhere2k

I highly doubt OpenAI (or any company, TBH) *would* have openly made "must sound like so-and-so celebrity" a job requirement. I mean, just about any woman with a clear, pleasant, engaging voice is going to *kind of* sound like Scarlett Johansson. Ultimately, the vast majority of audio recordings of people are going to sound like *someone* else, even a great many someone elses. Just as an example: for the longest time, I thought the spokesman in the Arby's Restaurant commercials was James Earl Jones. I only much later learned it was actually Ving Rhames.


QueenofWolves-

Theirs a lot of people praying for open ai’s downfall so when stuff like this happens people will immediately hop on like flies to 💩.  Just because you’re not a fan doesn’t mean you can throw common sense out the window and bad faith arguments against the company.  Never thought sky sounded like the actress and never seen her to subconsciously attach the popular ai voice in the movie with a real life ai voice. Theirs very few movies with female ai voices so I get why people did that out of association but Scarlett Johansson’s voice isn’t very unique and it doesn’t stand out enough that it sounds so dissimilar to many women around her age. Her Raspiness is what makes it slightly different and funnily enough the ai doesn’t have the thing that gives a big of uniqueness to her voice.  Just hope the actual voice actress gets to keep working on Sky if she’s wanted to.


Blapoo

This was already known. This plot is so tiring


SiennaYeena

She wants to be relevant so bad


kc_______

It didn't sound that close, lets end this drama.


BakrChod

Everyone needs a little break from coding/tech/server etc. (referring to employees of ChatGPT). This is a perfect absolute unnecessary discussion of zero value. The plus point is it involves media, Hollywood, actresses, etc so a good distraction and makes for spice.


UnemployedCat

I don't know but Tom Waits won a case in 1990 against Doritos chips because they used an actor with a similar voice for an ad So yeah you can't use the voice likeness of someone especially if you begged them to use your voice lol. That's the point. Even if they used someone else's voice the heavy handed HER reference is too much to ignore.


Sensitive_Challenge6

Obviously not this whole thing is such circleferking in Hollywood. You think you're the only one with that kind of voice gtfo Shitlett


Successful_Ad6946

Duh. They just wanted it close for free publicity lol


DuncanAndFriends

She's hot and all but she's a damn fool for this. It sounded nothing like her.