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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

#291

Post by frankacter »

dragonwriter wrote: post #240
frankacter wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

>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

It's not. The original comment in this chain was drawing parallel to a lawsuit in which someone intentionally took steps to impersonate an actor.

This situation is a voice actor using their "natural voice" as a source of work.

If a lawsuit barring OpenAI from using this voice actor is successful, due to similarities to a more famous actor, that puts this voice actor's future potential at risk for companies actively wanting to avoid potential for litigation.

Suggesting a calming female persona as a real time always present life assistant draws parallel to a movie about a calming female persona that is a real time always present life assistant is not a smoking gun of impropriety.

Pursuing a more famous name to attach to marketing is certainly worth paying a premium over a lesser known voice actor and again is not a smoking gun.

Sky voice has been around for a very long time in the OpenAI app dating back to early 2023. No one was drawing similarities or crying foul and decrying how it "sounds just like Scarlett" ..

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#293

Post by Lerc »

hluska wrote: post #190
Lerc wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A potential answer to that is liability protection even when you feel like you are legally in the clear. It is still worth paying a sum to avoid a lawsuit you think you will win. An example of this is Weird Al pays for the rights to things that are probably ok under fair use parody protection. Paying for the rights removes the possibily of a challenge.

Does Weird Al pay rights? I know he asks for permission to maintain his relationships with artists and to make sure he gets his share of songwriting credits (and the fees). But does he pay for rights? I’ve never seen that before and I’d love to read more.

Now you've got me doubting myself. It was covered in a Tom Scott video. I'll have a look for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jwo5qc78QU&t=485s

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#294

Post by czl »

__loam wrote: post #137
s1k3s wrote: post #35

I love how we went from questioning copyright & licensing to "GPT vs Google, which one is better". To every artist or engineer out there who contributed to the general knowledge: you lost, everything you've ever done to help other people is now part of the models and there's nothing you can do to take it back. What even happened to the copyright strikes artists were supposed to bring up against these AI companies? Th…

There's currently like 10 lawsuits against generative AI companies that are working through the courts including the one from Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz, one from Getty Images, one from the Author's Guild, and one from the New York Times. It should be shocking to nobody that lawsuits take time to litigate, and until the court settles the questions at hand, Open AI and its ilk are operating in a l…

> and until the court settles the questions at hand, Open AI and its ilk are operating in a legal gray area.

My understanding of western law is that things are ok unless law forbids it. So they are operating in an area that under _current_ laws is ok but because of what may be at stake many wish the current laws were different and are willing to use litigation and lobby efforts to that end.

This is NOT IN REPLY TO YOU but a general observation: Imagine the litigation that will happen when brain implants enable brain to brain sharing sensations and thoughts. Imagine the horrible copyright abuse! How will the publishing industry and sports industry and Hollywood control the rampart piracy?!?

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#295

Post by bobthepanda »

michaelmrose wrote: post #167
bobthepanda wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it is. Waits v. Frito Lay was a successful lawsuit where Tom Waits sued Frito Lay for using an impression of his voice in a radio commercial. https://casetext.com/case/waits-v-frito-lay-inc See also Midler v. Ford Motor Co. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co .

Correct me if I'm wrong that had nothing to do with copyright and fair use is moot

In California, personality rights have the same protections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Celebrities_Rights_...

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#296

Post by zemo »

wvenable wrote: post #230
zemo wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what do you think Her is about?

What is relevance of that to this discussion on whether OpenAI stole Scarlett Johansson's voice?

you’re using “he loves the movie” as some sort of defense, when the movie is a pretty standard sci fi cautionary tale. You know the saying:

sci-fi author: I wrote about the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale

tech bros: Finally we have built the Torment Nexus from beloved sci fi story “Do not build the Torment Nexus”

Enjoying a story is not justification for recreating any artifact that occurs within the story. Her is quite clearly a cautionary tale, not meant to be instructive. https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/why-is-sam-altman-so-obs...

so yes I do think it’s very relevant that when you say “he liked the film”, the contents of the film is an admissible area of inquiry.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#297

Post by istjohn »

panarky wrote: post #192
metacritic12 wrote: post #157

Is something going on with the HN ratings for this submission? It was ranked #1 a few minutes ago, and now below 20. It's 190 points posted You can watch this submission sink in realtime by refreshing; it's amazing almost. See a live screengrab here: https://imgur.com/a/E3fOEvF everything with this submissions point / time ratio is ranked way higher.

30 minutes after posting: #2 with 140 points and 79 comments https://imgur.com/a/MwsnQIH 40 minutes after posting: #17 with 171 points and 120 comments https://imgur.com/a/YEyuKP5 50 minutes after posting: no longer on the front page with 207 points and 169 comments "Amazing" isn't the word for it.

After 2 hours it's at #71

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#298

Post by [deleted] »

panarky wrote: 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…

[deleted]

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#299

Post by frankacter »

pseudalopex wrote: post #180
frankacter wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. How do you know?

"Sky's voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice"

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/20/1252495087/openai-pulls-ai-vo...

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#300

Post by czl »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #83
redox99 wrote: post #44

They hired a voice actor for Sky's voice. If OpenAI loses, does this mean this voice actor cannot do their job any longer, because it happens some other actor has a similar voice? Could Sky's voice actor sue a movie Johansson works in, because Johannson is copying her voice?

No, the voice actor didn't do anything wrong OpenAi might have done something wrong by hiring her with the intention of making a voice model they can leverage Scarlett's fame to market

OpenAI wanted to imitate the AI from the film Her. When you show that film to 100 random people how many will know who did the voice for the AI in the film? I myself had no idea. Moreover there are people now running blind voice similarly tests of similar voices of various other possible female actors. Guess what these blind voice tests show?
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