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Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

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Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#121

Post by sanxiyn »

ekam wrote: post #117
nickthegreek wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 )

I think because it is not text-to-speech. It probably isn't simple to transfer.

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#122

Post by crimsoneer »

nickthegreek wrote: post #102
anon373839 wrote: post #62

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 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…

But it's clearly not her voice right? The version that's been on the app for a year just isn't. Like, it clearly intending to be slightly reminiscent of her, but it's also very clearly not. Are we seriously saying we can't make voices that are similar to celebrities, when not using their actual voice?

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#123

Post by ceruleanseas »

zooq_ai wrote: post #97
crazygringo wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

But is that Scarlett Jo or Producers of Her that own the copyright? If you imitate Darth Vader, I don't think James Earl Jones has as much case for likeliness as Star Wars franchise

James Earl Jones sold his voice rights to Disney a couple of years ago, so they can continue to use an AI likeness of his voice for future movies. https://ambadar.com/insights/james-earl-jones-signs-off-his-...

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#124

Post by npunt »

emmp wrote: post #74
infotainment wrote: post #38

Earlier 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?

There are two similar famous cases I know offhand. Probably there are more. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co . Bette Middler successfully sued Ford for impersonating her likeness in a commercial. Then also: https://casetext.com/case/waits-v-frito-lay-inc Tom Waits successfully sued Frito Lay for using an imitator without approval in a radio commercial. The key seems to be that if someone is fam…

Also Crispin Glover's case in Back to the Future II

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/bac...

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#125

Post by crazygringo »

zooq_ai wrote: post #97
crazygringo wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

But is that Scarlett Jo or Producers of Her that own the copyright? If you imitate Darth Vader, I don't think James Earl Jones has as much case for likeliness as Star Wars franchise

It's both.

If you just want ScarJo's (or James Earl Jones') voice, you need the rights from them. Period.

If you want to reuse the character of her AI bot from the movie (her name, overall personality, tone, rhythm, catchphrases, etc.), or the character of Darth Vader, you also need to license that from the producers.

And also from ScarJo/Jones if you want the same voice to accompany the character. (Unless they've sold all rights for future re-use to the producers, which won't usually be the case, because they want to be paid for sequels.)

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#126

Post by crimsoneer »

not2b wrote: post #113
ThinkBeat wrote: post #75

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…

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.

There is a big, big difference between actively and intentional imitating a voice, and having a broadly similar voice though!

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#127

Post by joegibbs »

elevatedastalt wrote: post #59
alsodumb wrote: post #2

Why do I feel like Sam's 'her' tweet pretty much gave Scarlett Johansson's legal counsel all the ammo they needed lol.

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.

Definitely. GPT4o has a voice that sounds like Scarlett Johannson? They'd probably get away with it, I'm sure there are a lot of people that sound like her. Tweeting a reference to a movie she was in - a bit more murky because it's starting to sound like they are deliberately cloning her voice. Asking to use her voice, then using a soundalike, then referencing the movie? 100%, no doubt.

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#128

Post by hn_20591249 »

signal11 wrote: post #110
aaronharnly wrote: post #11

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.

OpenAI claimed they hired a different professional actor who performed using her own voice [1]. If so, I suspect they’ll be okay in a court of law — having a voice similar to a celebrity isn’t illegal. It’ll likely cheese off actors and performers though. [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2024/05/20/openai-sa...

Seems like sama may have put a big hole in that argument when he tweeted "her", now it is very easy to say that they knowingly cloned ScarJo's likeness. When will tech leaders learn to stop tweeting.

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#129

Post by npunt »

anon373839 wrote: post #62

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 Scarle…

When people cheat on (relatively) small things, it's usually an indication they'll cheat on big things too

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#130

Post by kapildev »

nickthegreek wrote: post #102
anon373839 wrote: post #62

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 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…

I can still access the sky voice even though it is supposed to be "yanked".
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