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.
Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
261–270 of 1001 posts
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#262Well, 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…
Given the timeline, I’m still baffled Sam Altman tweeted “her.” That just makes plausible deniability go away for a random shitpost.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
It's almost certainly not legal exactly because of the surrounding context of openai trying to hire her along with the "her" tweet. There's not a lot of precedent around voice impersonation, but there is for a very, very similar case against Ford https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co .
Amazing case law, thank you! I suspect OpenAI have just realised this, hence the walking back of the “Sky” voice.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#264I 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.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#265One 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/kee...
IANAL of course.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
What if the imitator is clearly an imitator? e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvF0l8RUGQ8
That's weird -- I would think Morgan Freeman would be able to sue over that, but I Am Not An Intellectual Property Lawyer.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
> would it mean that if your voice sounds similar to someone else, you can't do voice work? Maybe only when the director's instructions are "I want you to sound like XYZ".
Exception: Parody is covered under the first amendment.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paper money from the model they're giving away for free?
I mean if you don't think these kinds of positive announcements don't increase the value of the company or parent company then I don't really know how to convince you as it's a standard business principle.
There isn’t a positive announcement here, what is wrong with you?
This reads like “we got caught red handed” and doing the bare minimum for it to not appear malicious and deliberate when the timeline is read out in court.
Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#269Earlier 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…
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.
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Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do people watch 15 seconds of a demo like this - https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1790072174117613963 And not see how over the top it is... cmon.
If anyone thinks this demo is cool, I regret to inform you that your life is very, very sad.
"Over the top" means exaggerated and corny, almost the opposite of "cool".