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Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

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Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#231
post #6

Altman would have us believe it's all just an innocent misunderstanding but without actually saying so: "We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson." Is he trying to suggest the company did not try to make the voice sound like her without her permission? The statement sounds like it's written by a lawyer to be technically true while implying something that is actually false. These…

> We should not give a sneaky and deceptive man this much power over our future. We should not give anybody this much power over our future.

This is why open source must win. I mean, it won't, but it's the only path to avoiding a silicon aristocracy.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you have to be willfully missing the point when he said Her was his favorite movie So what? It's one of my fav movies too. > they repeatedly tried to get the voice actor from Her. She didn't do it. So they went ahead and made a voice that sounds like her. It's not like she contributed to making the voice and then decided not to have it used.

I'm not sure you're aware of the ramifications of all of this, or else you just don't care. The voice acting industry is now entirely dead thanks to your opinions on this matter. Nobody is going to reach out to Liam Neeson for his voice, they'll just have some voice tool recreate it and read the script as long as the tool can recreate the same emotional tones they're looking for, and it's cheaper than hiring the actu…

Getting rid of AI so people can do the work instead is another incarnation of the fallacy of the broken window.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oke and they weren't able to get her and then did a fall back to a different voice actor. How is that problematic? That's like trying to cast a specific actor in a movie, they decline and then you find the next closest match. It's not acceptable that the originally wanted actor then throws a hissy fit. I don't see the reason for outrage here at all.

I don't know, but Sam seemed to think it necessary to try to get her permission first, so it must be at least somewhat problematic. Yeah, "the major AI product in the world" to ask to use a famous actors voice, and then when she says no, create something similar anyways, is at least a little be slimy and really a bad idea on many different levels (legally for one thing).

> Sam seemed to think it necessary to try to get her permission first

Weird Al also gets permission to do a parody even though it is not legally required.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We should not give a sneaky and deceptive man this much power over our future. We should not give anybody this much power over our future.

This is why open source must win. I mean, it won't, but it's the only path to avoiding a silicon aristocracy.

Yes, an Open AI

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. This whole thing is more stupidity than anything else. There is nothing wrong with using a voice that sounds like her. There is everything wrong with referencing the movie and sort of implying it is the voice from the movie. They could have easily let others make the connection. So dumb.

Why is it wrong to explicitly mimic a part played in a movie? Are we saying that the actor owns their portrayal of the role? OpenAI should’ve owned their actions. "Yes, we wanted to get a voice that sounded like the one from Her." There’s nothing wrong with that.

Actors get a lot of rights to their likeness.

So, yes maybe?

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#236

Ilya was right

Ilya: "I’m confident that OpenAI will build AGI that is both safe and beneficial under the leadership of @sama, @gdb, @miramurati and now, under the excellent research leadership of @merettm"

https://x.com/ilyasut/status/1790517455628198322

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#238
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it wrong to explicitly mimic a part played in a movie? Are we saying that the actor owns their portrayal of the role? OpenAI should’ve owned their actions. "Yes, we wanted to get a voice that sounded like the one from Her." There’s nothing wrong with that.

Actors get a lot of rights to their likeness. So, yes maybe?

Hmm. Being able to say "thou shalt not make a character similar to Her" is a lot like saying "thou shalt not make a video game character similar to any other." It’s not an explicit copy, and their name for Sky was different. That’s the bar for the videogame industry; why should it be different for actors? Especially one that didn’t show her face.

This whole thing is reminiscent of Valve threatening to sue S2 for allegedly making a similar character. Unsurprisingly, the threats went nowhere.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#239
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh you will be forgotten. All your knowledge will come from some trademarked AI bot and you won't even get a linkback

In this specific case I asked ChatGPT, which said "Walter Bright is the creator of the D programming language. He's a talented programmer!", so maybe he specifically won't be forgotten. Most of the rest of us probably will, though.

I have no idea if I am talented or not. I do know that I've spend a lot of time programming, and it's inevitable one would get better at it over time. I also learned from being around people who were really good, and were kind enough to help me.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#240
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In back to the future II, Crispin Glover didn’t sign up to be George McFly so they used facial prosthetics and impersonation to continue the George McFly character. He sued Universal, and reportedly settled for $760,000. Example article on the topic - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/bac...

While not defending OpenAI or Altman, the caveat here is that this was a voice actor using their natural voice, not an actor impersonating scarlett johansson. Setting a precedent that if your natural voice sounds similar to a more famous actor precludes you from work would be a terrible precedent to set.

> Setting a precedent that if your natural voice sounds similar to a more famous actor precludes you from work would be a terrible precedent to set.

Yes, but literally no one anywhere is suggesting that the voice actress used would be banned from work because of any similarity between her voice and Johansson's; that’s an irrelevant strawman.

Some people are arguing that there is considerable reason to believe that the totality of the circumstances of OpenAI’s particular use of her voice would make OpenAI liable under existing right of personality precedent, which, again, does not create liability for mere similarity of voice.

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