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.
Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
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Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#112Incredibly stupid The wink wink at creating an AI girlfriend is so bizarre I guess we know who their target user base is
Worse than that, good luck positioning yourself as a paragon of "AI safety" when you can't even handle basic human business relationships honestly.
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?
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#113SJ 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…
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.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s definitely sketchy (classic OpenAI) But my question is: is what they did actually illegal? Can someone copyright their own voice?
Yes, absolutely illegal. You don't need to copyright anything, you simply own the rights your own likeness -- your visual appearance and your voice. A company can't take a photo from your Facebook and plaster it across an advertisement for their product without you giving them the rights to do that. And if you're a known public figure, this includes lookalikes and soundalikes as well. You can't hire a ScarJo imperson…
If they didn’t use her actual voice for the training, didn’t hire voice talent to imitate her, didnt pursue her for a voice contract, didn’t make a reference to the movie in which she voices an AI, I feel OpenAI would have been on more stable legal footing. But they aren’t playing with a strong hand now and folded fast.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#115Maybe 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.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Worse than that, good luck positioning yourself as a paragon of "AI safety" when you can't even handle basic human business relationships honestly.
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'…
Also retired the entire safety team in the same weak too, lol.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#117Well, 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 Scarle…
This statement from scarlet really changed my perspective. I use and loved the Sky voice and I did feel it sounded a little like her, but moreover it was the best of their voice offerings. I was mad when they removed it. But now I’m mad it was ever there to begin with. This timeline makes it clear that this wasn’t a coincidence and maybe not even a hiring of an impressionist (which is where things get a little more w…
Same here and that voice really was the only good one. I don't know why they don't bring the voices from their API over, which are all much better, like Nova or Shimmer (https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/text-to-speech)
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s definitely sketchy (classic OpenAI) But my question is: is what they did actually illegal? Can someone copyright their own voice?
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.
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.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#119Again. 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.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s definitely sketchy (classic OpenAI) But my question is: is what they did actually illegal? Can someone copyright their own voice?
Yes, absolutely illegal. You don't need to copyright anything, you simply own the rights your own likeness -- your visual appearance and your voice. A company can't take a photo from your Facebook and plaster it across an advertisement for their product without you giving them the rights to do that. And if you're a known public figure, this includes lookalikes and soundalikes as well. You can't hire a ScarJo imperson…
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