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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

#272

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.

The code for these systems is around 1000 lines. It just takes $100,000,000 in electricity costs to execute the program. Open source might not matter.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I encourage you to look through this case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co .

1. The case is from 1988. That’s the year I was born. Societal norms are in a constant state of flux, and this one case from 36 years ago isn’t really an indication of the current state of how case law will play out. 2. Ford explicitly hired an impersonator. OpenAI hired someone that sounded like her, and it’s her natural voice. Should movies be held to the same standard when casting their actors? This is about as ab…

Midler is actually quite similar. Midler didn't want to do a commercial, and refused an offer, so they hired a lookalike that fooled her friends. The appellate court held that Ford and its advertising agency had "misappropriated" Midler's voice.

Waits v. Frito Lay, Inc was '92, and cited it. They used a Tom Waits-sounding voice on an original song, and Waits successfully sued:

> Discussing the right of publicity, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the jury’s verdict that the defendants had committed the “Midler tort” by misappropriating Tom Waits’ voice for commercial purposes. The Midler tort is a species of violation of the right of publicity that protects against the unauthorized imitation of a celibrity’s voice which is distinctive and widely known, for commercial purposes.

https://tiplj.org/wp-content/uploads/Volumes/v1/v1p109.pdf

Of course, who knows what a court will find at the end of this. There is precedent, however.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#274
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it’s still great marketing to have Scarjo on board? That immediately returns positive ROI on the cost to hire her.

Which is also why it’s unethical to use a voice clearly designed to be mistaken for her.

I agree that it’s a bit of a sketchy thing to do, and potentially even illegal based on similar case law, but the commenter I responded to created an entire fake sequence of events that seems incredibly unlikely, when there’s a far simpler explanation.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't see at all where OpenAI claimed that sky is associated with Scarlett Johansson. If true I agree that is bad.

The day of the demo, Sam posted a one word tweet “her” (the title of the movie, starring Scarlett Johansson as an AI Assistant, that people bring up when talking about the idea of AI companions). Minutes later his company debuted an AI assistant that sounded a lot like Scarlett Johansson, performing an assistant/companion role similar to hers in the movie. The association was noticed, widely discussed and definitely…

He should have just deleted the tweet. Crisis averted.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#276
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a blatant misunderstanding of how voice acting works. A good voice actor is a vocal chameleon, and can really change their voice for each role.

This is simply not true. A voice actor doesn’t have to be skilled at changing their voice , especially in this context. Many are hired for their natural voice, like narration. When most film actors do voice acting, they’re just using their voice. They’re not hired for being chameleons.

That’s because film actors are hired to voice act for their fame, not for their skills as voice actors.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#277
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is an apples-to-apples comparison. The movie producers didn't produce a simulation of Britney's voice and attempt to sell access to it. However you feel about an probably-unapproved celebrity cameo in a movie, it's not the same thing as selling the ability to impersonate that celebrity's voice to anyone willing to pay, in perpetuity.

If you go to Vegas, you can go to a wedding officiated by someone who looks like, sounds like, and acts like Elvis Presly. This is available to anyone. You can get the same actor to do the same simulation for another purpose if you're willing to pay for it. The biggest difference that I see is that technology has made the simulation cheaper and easier.

And these people are known as "Elvis Presley impersonators." They don't pretend to be some obscure person you've never heard of, for very obvious reasons.

The biggest difference here is obviously one of scale. I don't think ScarJo would be threatening to sue you, the individual, if you did a voice impression of her for a talent show or a friends wedding.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#278

This may come off as defamatory, however does anyone else feel like Sam Altman has slowly been heading towards an impending reputation disaster hilariously adjacent to that of Sam Bankman-Fried? I've seen this perspective expressed on twitter/X several times as well.

Never trust a "Sam."

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#279

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.

> 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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#280
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the voice actor was cast... why bother reaching out to ScarJo? Like, do you want to pay her fee, Sam? Because the general idea is to not pay the fee. Which is why you probably cast the voice actor before reaching out to Johansson.

Is there any way to confirm that they actually did hire a voice actor prior to reaching out to ScarJo?

ScarJo claims they reached out to her just 2 days prior to demoing the voice that sounded like her, and (I believe) OpenAI outright claimed that they hired a different voice actor, though they didn't admit that they instructed her to try to sound like Scarlett's character in Her, which could make or break Scarlett's case.
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