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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

#201

Post by WheatMillington »

stickfigure wrote: post #123

If you get 10 random people in a room and blindly played a clip of Scarlett Johansson speaking normally (ie not lines from a movie), I'd put money that exactly zero out of 10 people could identify the speaker. It's one thing to copyright a performance or own a likeness. Owning the sound of a voice is scary territory we do not want to get into, or the estate of every singer will be suing the estate of every other sing…

If you had picked someone with a less disctinct voice you may have a point, but ScarJo's voice is very distinct. I'd bet on 10/10 people who are engaged in pop culture and 5/10 general people guessing correctly.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#202

Post by verdverm »

rowanG077 wrote: post #82
verdverm wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The confusion (and that OAI attempted to recruit her) is sufficient grounds for a lawsuit to the effect that they impersonated her. Generally, celebrities have ownership and rights over their likeness for commercial or promotional purposes. OpenAI tried to benefit by using "her" likeness without permission or a contract/license

So If a director tries to cast Scarlett Johansson and she denies. Then instead casts Amber Heard in the movie. He is opening himself to lawsuits? Because Amber Heard looks very similar to Scarlet Johansson? I can't believe that. What gives Scarlett Johansson the right to block Amber Heard from playing in a movie she was considered for? I think this is what this argument comes down to but just in terms of voices.

This is different and there is existing case law, see this other comment on this post

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40435274

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#203

Post by somethoughts »

xt00 wrote: post #40

This is a typical "move fast and break things" mentality.. except that mentality betrays Sam's statements about doing a bunch of this stuff "carefully" etc.. its all a smokescreen.. nobody is going to realistically stop working on AGI in order to be careful.. basically AGI is being pursued like the race to get the atom bomb.. so yea history tells us its full speed ahead with no brakes. Scarjo is just the latest perso…

"This is a typical "move fast and break things" mentality.. " with a big dash of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” thinking thrown in for good measure.

Staying relevant is all that matters these days.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#204

Post by Uehreka »

rowanG077 wrote: post #119
Uehreka wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, I think it’s pretty clear cut. Under current US trademark law (IANAL etc), if I sound like Morgan Freeman, I’m free to do what I want, as long as I don’t try to convince people that I’m Morgan Freeman. If I’m cast in a movie because my voice sounds like Morgan Freeman, and the promo posters don’t have his name or face on them, fine. If I do voiceover for a commercial and say something like “I’m Morgan Freeman, b…

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 increased the value of the product through the implied association with (and implied endorsement by) Scarlett Johansson.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#205

Post by SrslyJosh »

btilly wrote: post #182
afavour wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He kind of ruined that argument when he tweeted “Her” alongside the video. Pretty clearly drawing a line between the voice and Johansson’s portrayal in the movie. Incredible, really. It would have been so easy to just… not do that.

Let's take a parallel situation from around 20 years ago, and see how you feel about it. I'm going back that far as a reminder of what was long considered OK, before AI. In the movie The Seed of Chucky , Britney Spears gets killed. You can watch the clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3kCg5o0cHA . It is very clearly Britney Spears. Except Britney Spears was not hired for the role. They hired a Britney Spears imp…

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.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#206

Post by [deleted] »

imgabe wrote: post #46

Just so I understand correctly, the sneaky, diabolical, psychopathic behavior we're talking about here is ... making a voice that sounds like a celebrity's voice? We're not talking about poisoning babies or dumping toxic waste in a river, right? The reason we're supposed to consider Sam Altman a villain of unparalleled magnitude is that he used a voice that sounded like a celebrity and she got mad about it. Correct?

[deleted]

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#207

Post by stefan_ »

btilly wrote: post #182
afavour wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He kind of ruined that argument when he tweeted “Her” alongside the video. Pretty clearly drawing a line between the voice and Johansson’s portrayal in the movie. Incredible, really. It would have been so easy to just… not do that.

Let's take a parallel situation from around 20 years ago, and see how you feel about it. I'm going back that far as a reminder of what was long considered OK, before AI. In the movie The Seed of Chucky , Britney Spears gets killed. You can watch the clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3kCg5o0cHA . It is very clearly Britney Spears. Except Britney Spears was not hired for the role. They hired a Britney Spears imp…

This kind of de minimis artistic use is what fair use was invented for, and god knows they licensed her likeness regardless.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#208

Post by davidw »

hot_gril wrote: post #195
davidw wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YIMBY is a very, very broad group of people who just see how bad the housing crisis is and want to fix it, and realize that a big chunk of that fix is legalizing housing that's perfectly normal in much of the world. Don't lump us in with the out of control tech bro culture people like Musk.

Looks like "really YIYBY, NIMBY" was an attempt to narrow it down

They are saying that YIMBYs "really want to build in your backyard, not their own" which is nonsense.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#209

Post by kaiwen1 »

FMecha wrote: post #181
kaiwen1 wrote: post #104

There are many people with voices similar to Scarlett Johansson's. If SJ is unwilling to be a voice actor for OpenAi, then why should OpenAI not find a similar voice and use that instead? SJ certainly does not have a monopoly on all voices similar to hers. Anyone in possession of such a voice has the same right as SJ to monetize it. And someone did in fact exercise that right. If you compare the Sky voice to SJ's, th…

See Waits vs. Frito Lay.

In that case, as I understand it, the voice actor intentionally mimicked Waits, purposefully using his intonations, style of speech, and phrasing, all of which were not natural to the voice actor. He was intentionally mimicking Waits. I doubt the same claim can be made of the Sky voice actor.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#210

Post by throwaway5959 »

afavour wrote: post #51
miohtama wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are hundreds of people with similar voices. If any voice actor can pull the same accent than Ms. Johansson, it should be fair game, as long it was the original training material? Voices cannot be copyrighted or be exclusive, although I am sure Hollywood will try to copyright them in some point.

He kind of ruined that argument when he tweeted “Her” alongside the video. Pretty clearly drawing a line between the voice and Johansson’s portrayal in the movie. Incredible, really. It would have been so easy to just… not do that.

He knew there would be blowback, he just didn’t care. Look at how many people are talking about it.
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