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OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

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Re: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

#261
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A celeb creates a particular voice personality for a role as an AI in a very successful movie. You create an AI, and "co-incidentally" create a strikingly similar voice personality for your AI. Not a legal minefield, you copied the movie, you owe them. They could have used any accent, any tone, anyone. Literally anyone else. And it would have been fine. But they obviously copied the movie even if they used a differen…

Yes they tried to copy film Her yet the voice ai character in the film you think was original? No other films predate that film with female AI voices? And would the actor have claim on the fictional character they played in the film vs film “owners”?

Obviously there have been lots of female voices for AIs in movies. But not all of them sound the same. OpenAI could have created a new voice personality for their AI by hiring almost any female voice actress available. But they didn't. They chose to copy Her.

Re: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

#262
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the back and forth trying to hire her, and she refusing? Sounds like: "Eh nevermind, we are going to use it anyway and BTW, I'm going to tweet 'HER' " You don't think that will have no weight whatsoever in a lawsuit?

Not if they didn't actually use it, no.

We would not see these headlines, if they never asked her and never mentioned her. Then it would be just voice of some voice actress which might or might not sound like Scarlett.

Re: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

#263

Props for Scarlett for turning down what was likely a big chunk of change. I can see how being the official voice of AI could turn out to be counter productive for her in the longer run

What long run? She is 39 in Hollywood.

Re: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

#264
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actress did impersonate Her though. It's not just a random "voice for your chatbot", it's that particularly breathy, chatty, voice that she performed for the movie. I would agree with you completely if they'd created a completely different voice. Even if they'd impersonated a different famous actress. But it's the fact that Her was about an AI, and this is an AI, and the voices are identical. It's clearly an impe…

How do you explain the many people saying that the voices do not sound especially similar? "The pitch is kiiiiiind of close, but that's about it. Different cadence, different levels of vocal fry, slightly different accent if you pay close attention. Johansson drops Ts for Ds pretty frequently, Sky pronounces Ts pretty sharply. A linguist could probably break it down better than me and identify the different regions i…

Given the breadth and range of female voices available, this is way too close to be just a coincidence.

Re: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

#265
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm genuinely not sure what you're trying to say here. Are you claiming that this was somehow engineered by Altman on purpose to draw attention, because all publicity is good publicity? Or engineered by his enemies to throw mud at Altman, because if you throw enough some of it will stick? Occam's Razor argues that Sam simply wanted ScarJo's voice, but couldn't get it, so they came up with a legally probably technical…

It's not a clone. What is ethically murky about it? You want Brad Pitt for your movie. He says no. You hire Benicio Del Toro because of the physical resemblence. Big deal. Having seen "Her" and many other Scarlet Johansson movies, I didn't think for a second that GPT-4o sounded like her. On the contrary, I wondered why they had chosen the voice of a middle aged woman, and whether that was about being woke. It wasn't…

> I wondered why they had chosen the voice of a middle aged woman

AIs and automated systems, real and fictional, traditionally use women more than men to voice them. Apparently there was some research among all-male bomber crews that this "stood out", the B-58 was issued with some recordings of Joan Elms (https://archive.org/details/b58alertaudio ) and this was widely copied.

(obvious media exception: HAL)

Re: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

#266

People see what they want to see. If it wasn't for us being biased by the surrounding circumstances I don't think people would have confused their voices. Their voices are not that similar. I probably personally know people with a voice as similar to SJ as Sky's. You probably do too. The voice actress says the same: "I’ve never been compared to her by the people who do know me closely." But then suddenly a story emer…

Everyone mentions the "her" tweet, but I'm surprised to see nobody mention this tweet from ex-OpenAI employee Karpathy: https://x.com/karpathy/status/1790373216537502106

If it sounds nothing like her, and there was no intent to make it sound like her, why would he tweet "The killer app of LLMs is Scarlett Johansson"?

Many people made the comparison right after it was released https://x.com/search?q=scarjo%20until%3A2024-05-14&src=typed... and https://x.com/search?q=johansson%20until%3A2024-05-14&src=ty...

Re: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Midler case is readily distinguishable. From Wikipedia: > Ford Motor created an ad campaign for the Mercury Sable that specifically was meant to inspire nostalgic sentiments through the use of famous songs from the 1970s sung by their original artists. When the original artists refused to accept, impersonators were used to sing the original songs for the commercials. Midler was asked to sing a famous song of hers…

The actress did impersonate Her though. It's not just a random "voice for your chatbot", it's that particularly breathy, chatty, voice that she performed for the movie. I would agree with you completely if they'd created a completely different voice. Even if they'd impersonated a different famous actress. But it's the fact that Her was about an AI, and this is an AI, and the voices are identical. It's clearly an impe…

> The actress did impersonate Her though

This is unclear. What is clear is OpenAI referenced Her in marketing it. That looks like it was a case of poor impulse control. But it's basis for a claim.

Re: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

#268
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actress did impersonate Her though. It's not just a random "voice for your chatbot", it's that particularly breathy, chatty, voice that she performed for the movie. I would agree with you completely if they'd created a completely different voice. Even if they'd impersonated a different famous actress. But it's the fact that Her was about an AI, and this is an AI, and the voices are identical. It's clearly an impe…

> The actress did impersonate Her though. Did she? The article claims that: 1. Multiple people agree that the casting call mentioned nothing about SJ/her 2. The voice actress claims she was not given instructions to imitate SJ/her 3. The actress's natural voice sounds identical to the AI-generated Sky voice I don't personally think it's anywhere near "identical" to SJ's voice. It seems most likely to me that they not…

No-one had to explicitly say any of that for it to still be an impersonation. Her was a very popular film, and Johansson's voice character was very compelling. They literally could have said nothing and just chosen the voice audition closest to Her unconsciously, because of the reach of the film, and that would still be an impersonation.

Re: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

#269
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Who slandered who?

Those which take side in a totally unconfirmed story. If the side you are siding with isn't right, you are part of the problem.

Re: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said it was ‘prosecutable’?

Scarlet Johansson is threatening legal action against OpenAI for this. Are you not aware of this?

> Scarlet Johansson is threatening legal action against OpenAI for this

Scarlet Johansson cannot prosecute anyone. She can sue them, in civil court, for civil damages. Prosecution is done in connection with crimes. Nobody is alleging any crimes here.

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