Sam Altman is showing us who he really is • Hacker News Board

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#51

Post by afavour » Tue, May 21, 2024, 10:49 PM UTC

miohtama wrote: post #14

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…

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.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#52

Post by xyst » Tue, May 21, 2024, 10:49 PM UTC

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…

> We should not give a sneaky, deceptive and manipulative person this much power over our future.

sneaky, deceptive, and manipulative is a tag line for many billionaires. you don't get that rich without stepping on many people.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#53

Post by tithe » Tue, May 21, 2024, 10:50 PM UTC

ambyra wrote: post #34

tengbretson wrote: post #15

I honestly wouldn't have even thought they sounded all that similar were it not for openai themselves courting comparisons to the movie Her.

They’re not especially similar. I think the talking style is very close, people say it is flirty in the same way as the film. You can’t copyright look and feel though, can you?

> You can’t copyright look and feel though, can you?

You can certainly patent it.

"In general terms, a “utility patent” protects the way an article is used and works (35 U.S.C. 101), while a “design patent” protects the way an article looks (35 U.S.C. 171)."

- https://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics/apply/design-patent

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#54

Post by staunch » Tue, May 21, 2024, 10:50 PM UTC

lenerdenator wrote: post #2

This feels like someone trying to do something they thought Steve Jobs would do.

Steve Jobs was a superficial asshole but was fundamentally a good and ethical person. There's only one major ethical mistake documented in his entire life (being an absentee father while his first daughter was young), which he spent decades making amends for.

The people that emulate Steve Jobs poorly are usually real assholes with a long list of ethical mistakes.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#55

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Tue, May 21, 2024, 10:50 PM UTC

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…

It's not a vague suggestion - in the full statement that's been reported elsewhere, he explicitly says it.

> The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.

I'm skeptical whether this is true, but it's a pretty unambiguous and non-sneaky denial.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#56

Post by akaru » Tue, May 21, 2024, 10:50 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #43

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…

Jim Carrey made his career by impersonating celebrity voices. So did Rich Little.

Pop goes the weasel.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#57

Post by feedforward » Tue, May 21, 2024, 10:50 PM UTC

It seems to me that the tech money people and executives have become nuts in the past few years. This, the YIMBY (really YIYBY, NIMBY) movement, /e/acc, the VCs going to war with San Francisco politicians (including the drunken threats from the current head of YC).

Never mind China, Europe seems to have had enough and even DC is having enough on some level. Not sure when this started, didn't seem to be at this level ten years ago.

I and others I know are against them, and we are like some of them were before their initial money raise - preparing for system design interviews, debugging from trace id's, studying covariance and contravariance. They really seem to be off in their own bubble of affluence. Not sure what year this started taking off - was definitely after 2014 at some point.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#58

Post by verdverm » Tue, May 21, 2024, 10:50 PM UTC

rowanG077 wrote: post #31

zemo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you have to be willfully missing the point when he said Her was his favorite movie, tweeted just “her” when the Sky voice was announced, and when they repeatedly tried to get the voice actor from Her. People who do underhanded things don’t just come out and say “look at me, doing the bad thing!”

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.

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

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#59

Post by WalterBright » Tue, May 21, 2024, 10:51 PM UTC

rowanG077 wrote: post #19

Leaving alone whether they sound similar at all for now, since that is subjective. I think this will set an extremely bad precedent. People owning their own voice is clear and that is the way it should be. But people owning how their voice sounds like is weird. You can find thousands and thousands of people with similar voices. We are going to path now where a single person can have ownership of that and block the ot…

With 9 billion voices on the planet, it would be hard/impossible to find a unique voice.

Re: Sam Altman is showing us who he really is

#60

Post by lenerdenator » Tue, May 21, 2024, 10:51 PM UTC

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…

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.