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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

#331

Post by kcplate »

infotainment wrote: post #38
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.

It’s definitely sketchy (classic OpenAI) But my question is: is what they did actually illegal? Can someone copyright their own voice?

The problem is they pursued, was rejected, then approximated. Had they just approximated and made no references to the movie…then I bet social marketing would have made the connection organically and neither Ms Johansson or the Her producers would have much ground because they could reasonably claim that it was just a relatively generic woman’s voice with a faint NY/NJ accent.

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

#332

Post by IncreasePosts »

romwell wrote: post #258
IncreasePosts wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't necessarily call that damning. "Soundalikes" are very common in the ad industry. For example, a car company approached the band sigur ros to include some of their music in a car commercial. Sigur ros declined. A few months later the commercial airs with a song that sounds like an unreleased sigur ros song, but really they just paid a composer to make something that sounds like sigur ros, but isn't. So mayb…

Sorry, that's apples-to-pizzas comparison. You're conflating work and identity . There's an ocean of difference between mimicking the style of someone's art in an original work, and literally cloning someone's likeness for marketing/business reasons. You can hire someone to make art in the style of Taylor Swift, that's OK. You can't start selling Taylor Swift figurines by the same principle. What Sam Altman did, figu…

But they aren't doing anything with her voice(allegedly?). They're doing something with a voice that some claim sounds like hers.

But if it isn't, then it is more like selling a figurine called Sally that happens to look a lot like Taylor Swift. Sally has a right to exist even if she happens to look like Taylor Swift.

Has there ever been an up and coming artist who was not allowed to sell their own songs, because they happened to sound a lot like an already famous artist? I doubt it.

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

#333

Post by moralestapia »

gcr wrote: post #284
chipweinberger wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s a weaksauce argument IMO. The character was played by SJ. Depictions of this character necessarily have to be depictions of the voice actress. Your argument may be stronger if OpenAI said something like “the movie studio owns the rights to this character’s likeness, so we approached them,” but it’s not clear they attempted that.

They didn't approach her, they approached her agent, which should've the point of contact for either case.

As to whether she owns the rights of that performance or somebody else, we'd have to read the contract; most likely she doesn't, though.

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

#334

Post by nerdponx »

ecjhdnc2025 wrote: post #220
nabla9 wrote: post #107

Johansson has money to hire lawyers and immediate access to media, so they backed off. Altman and OpenAI will walk over everyone here without any difficulty if they decide to take whats ours.

I often wonder why tech people think so positively about companies they idolise who are Uber-ing their way through regulations. Where do they think it stops? Why would people not want laws? The answer is so they can do the things that the laws prevent. This is POSIWID territory [0]. "The purpose of a system is what it does". Not what it repeatedly fails to live up to. What was the primary investment purpose of Uber?…

> I often wonder why tech people think so positively about companies they idolise who are Uber-ing their way through regulations. Where do they think it stops?

Because they don't think about the consequences, and don't want to. Better to retreat into the emotional safety of techno-fantasy and feeling like you're on the cutting edge of something big and new (and might make some good money in the process). Same reason people got into NFTs.

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

#336

Post by confused_boner »

wkat4242 wrote: post #328
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…

> maybe not even a hiring of an impressionist If they really hired someone who sounds just like her it's fair game IMO. Johanssen can't own the right to a similar voice just like many people can have the same name. I think if there really was another actress and she just happens to sound like her, then it's really ok. And no I'm not a fan of Altman (especially his worldcoin which I view as a privacy disaster) I mean,…

Discovery process will be interesting

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

#337

Post by ethbr1 »

brosciencecode wrote: post #314
KennyBlanken wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Sam is very clearly in the wrong here, but is your argument for why he sucks seriously that he said “we should not brand people as heretics for disagreeing with my point of view?”

[flagged]

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

#338

Post by prawn »

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…

SJ's side would use pre-action discovery and trawl through internal OpenAI communications to check. If there was any suggestion of instruction from management to find a similar voice, they'd potentially be in trouble. There's already the indication that they wanted her voice through official channels.

And would they need to use a voice actor when there is a substantial body of movie dialogue and interviews? I'd be surprised if they'd bothered.

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

#339

Post by kcplate »

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…

You would have to argue the distinctiveness of the voice (if they hadn’t already pursued her to do it). Tom Waits…that’s pretty distinct voice. Scarlett Johansson…not so much

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

#340

Post by prepend »

minimaxir wrote: post #262
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…

Given the timeline, I’m still baffled Sam Altman tweeted “her.” That just makes plausible deniability go away for a random shitpost.

I thought it was about functionality more than the specific voice.
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