Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 1001 posts

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

#301

Post by moralestapia »

chipweinberger wrote: post #230
hn_20591249 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or perhaps they cloned a character's likeness? Is there a distinction? Are they trying to make it sound like Her, or SJ? Or just trying to go for a similar style? i.e. making artistic choices in designing their product Note: I've never watched the movie.

I honestly don't think Scarlett (the person, not her "her" character) has anything to favor their case, aside from the public's sympathy.

She may have something only if it turns out that the training set for that voice is composed of some recordings of her (the person, not the movie), which I highly doubt and is, unfortunately, extremely hard to prove. Even that wouldn't be much, though, as it could be ruled a derivative work, or something akin to any celebrity impersonator. Those guys can even advertise themselves using the actual name of the celebrities involved and it's allowed.

Me personally, I hope she takes them to court anyway, as it will be an interesting trial to follow.

An interesting facet is, copyright law goes to the substance of the copyrighted work; in this case, because of the peculiarities of her character in "her", she is pretty much only voice, I wonder if that make things look different to the eyes of a judge.

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

#302

Post by 0xWTF »

Anyone care to bet Microsoft and other investors are actually ok with this narrative? I think they are, and in fact may be advocating for Sam to advance this narrative, because they 1) want a court decision, no matter which way it goes, and 2) they're confident OpenAI has more capabilities in the pipeline

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

#304

Post by hooloovoo_zoo »

pseudalopex wrote: post #275
hooloovoo_zoo wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both cases seem to have also borrowed from the artists’ songs too however. That could perhaps make a difference.

Bette Midler and Tom Waits didn't control their songs when they sued the companies.

But it makes it more likely that the listener will associate the commercial with the artist than just using the voice.

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

#305

Post by SLHamlet »

Really not a smart idea for OpenAI to do this when one of the top Congresspeople represents the Hollywood area, is about to be elected Senator, and already has a bill ready to require AI companies to abide by copyright:

https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2024/04/adam-schiff-ai-video-games...

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

#306

Post by spuz »

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…

It's also worth noting that Sam Altman admitted that he had only used GPT4o for one week before it was released. It's possible that in the rush to release before Google's IO event, they made the realisation of the likeness of the voice to Scarlett Johansen way too late hence the last minute contact with her agent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMtbrKhXMWc

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

#308

Post by mensetmanusman »

ncallaway wrote: post #157
crimsoneer wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> Are we seriously saying we can't make voices that are similar to celebrities, when not using their actual voice? They clearly thought it was close enough that they asked for permission, twice. And got two no’s. Going forward with it at that point was super fucked up. It’s very bad to not ask permission when you should. It’s far worse to ask for permission and then ignore the response. Totally ethically bankrupt.

Effective altruism would posit that it is worth one voice theft to help speed the rate of life saving ai technology in the hands of everyone.

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

#309

Post by croes »

dylan604 wrote: post #87
aeurielesn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This quote actually makes me disgusted. I don't think this is a quality to encourage on, especially since despite the tone it reads more as abuse.

It's actually the most rational thing I've heard quoted from him. You have to be willing to open the box to see what's inside to know if you can do it better/cheaper/faster/smaller. There's ways of doing that without breaking laws, or doing something unethical with the what you learn. There's also ways of doing it without destroying something or violating anyone/anything. It also allows you to hear their response to…

Those are the same people who break the laws and exploit people if they know they can't fight back.

Usually those people are considered sociopaths.

Maybe it's time to ask the employees of OpenAI who fought to get Altman back, How this behavior is compatible with their moral standards or whether money is the most important thing.

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

#310

Post by callalex »

threatofrain wrote: post #165
MBCook wrote: post #58

I really hope she sues the company to hell and back. She has the resources to fight back and make an example of them, and they have the resources to make it worthwhile.

I'm not sure she can do much since OpenAI withdrew so quickly. What damages are there?

The way USA courts are set up, setting precedent and assessing damages are two distinct things. I agree that the precedent she would be targeting wouldn’t be all that financially rewarding but that’s not the only thing that motivates humans.
Post reply on HN