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

washingtonpost.com

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

#851

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #670
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #668

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly an SJ voice was the goal, given that Altman asked her to do it, asked her a second time just two days before the ChatGPT-4o release, and then tweeted "her" on the release day. The next day Karpathy, recently ex-OpenAI, then tweets "The killer app of LLMs is Scarlett Johansson". Altman appears to be an habitual liar. Note his recent claim not to be aware of the non-disparagement and claw-back terms he had depa…

They hired the actor that did the voice months before they contacted SJ . The reaction on this site to the news that this story was false is kind of mindbending.

[deleted]

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

#852

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #670
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #668

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly an SJ voice was the goal, given that Altman asked her to do it, asked her a second time just two days before the ChatGPT-4o release, and then tweeted "her" on the release day. The next day Karpathy, recently ex-OpenAI, then tweets "The killer app of LLMs is Scarlett Johansson". Altman appears to be an habitual liar. Note his recent claim not to be aware of the non-disparagement and claw-back terms he had depa…

They hired the actor that did the voice months before they contacted SJ . The reaction on this site to the news that this story was false is kind of mindbending.

[deleted]

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

#853

Post by nomel »

jackothy wrote: post #695
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, no-one is disputing that, and despite this Altman then contacts SJ again two days before release asking her to reconsider, then tweets "her" to remind the public what he was shooting for. The goal could have just been ChatGPT with a voice interface, but instead Altman himself is saying the the goal was specifically to copy "her".

He's not necessarily saying that was the goal from the start. All he is admitting with that tweet is that it is indeed (he finds it to be) reminiscent of "Her".

The voice, or the plot/concept of the movie? Her was a bout an AI having enough realism that someone could become emotionally attached to it. It was not a movie about Scarlett Johansson's voice. Any flirty female voice would be appropriator a "her" tweet.

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

#854

Post by nomel »

not2b wrote: post #744
tptacek wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They hired the actor that did the voice months before they contacted SJ . The reaction on this site to the news that this story was false is kind of mindbending.

It was not claimed that they cloned ScarJo's voice. They hired a soundalike when they couldn't get the person they wanted. Use or lack of use of AI is irrelevant. As I said before, both Bette Midler and Tom Waits won similar cases. Since they withdrew the voice this will end, but if OpenAI hadn't backed off and ScarJo sued, there would be discovery, and we'd find out what her instructions were. If those instructions…

> They hired a soundalike when they couldn't get the person they wanted.

Your opinion may vary, but they don't sound alike to me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40435695

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

#855

Post by nomel »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #795
bnralt wrote: post #740

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Even if you think OpenAI isn’t a good place, this is an investigation by an established newspaper that refuted some of the more serious accusations (that OpenAI got a Johannson impersonator - they didn’t, that they modified the voice to sound like Johansson - evidence suggests this didn’t happen). When the reaction is “I don’t care that an investigation refuted some of the accusations”, it demonstrates someone…

An "investigation"? Let's note that OpenAI didn't release the names of the voice talent since they said they wanted to protect their privacy... So, how do you think the reporter managed to get not only the identity, but also the audition tape from "Sky"? Detective work? An interesting twist here is that WashPo is owned by Bezos, who via Amazon are backing Anthropic. I wonder how pleased he is about this piece of "inv…

> they said they wanted to protect their privacy

This very well could be a contractual obligation.

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

#856

Post by jackothy »

nomel wrote: post #853
jackothy wrote: post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not necessarily saying that was the goal from the start. All he is admitting with that tweet is that it is indeed (he finds it to be) reminiscent of "Her".

The voice, or the plot/concept of the movie? Her was a bout an AI having enough realism that someone could become emotionally attached to it. It was not a movie about Scarlett Johansson's voice. Any flirty female voice would be appropriator a "her" tweet.

Exactly, just reminiscent of the movie. So the tweet really proves nothing in this case, unlike what some people seem to believe.

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

#857

Post by Suppafly »

pyuser583 wrote: post #849
kstrauser wrote: post #773

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't take this as me defending OpenAI's clearly sketchy process. I'm writing this to help myself think through it. If it weren't for their attempt to link the voice to SJ (i.e. with the "her" tweet), would that be OK? - It's fine to hire a voice actor. - It's fine to train a system to sound like that voice actor. - It's fine to hire a voice actor who sounds like someone else. - It's probably fine to go out of…

There’s a special branch of law called “right of publicity” or “manners and likeness.” It protect celebrities who rely on endorsements and “who they are” for income. It very clearly prohibits copycats with near-likeness as a workaround to getting permission from a celebrity. OpenAI asked SJ to use her voice. That right there helps her case immensely. She said no. They went ahead anyway, presumably with someone or som…

Most of those "rights of publicity" don't apply in the US though. If they did, half the actors in movies couldn't get work, because quite a few of them get work as the off-brand version of X in the first place.

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

#858

Post by goatlover »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #732
goatlover wrote: post #722

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What facts disprove OpenAI making a voice that sounds like SJ such that the movie Her is referenced by Altman, and why is that actress upset?

> What facts disprove OpenAI making a voice that sounds like SJ The objective parts of this are disproved in several ways by the very article under which we're commenting . The subjective parts are... subjective, but arguably demonstrated as false in the very thread, through examples of SJ vs. Sky to listen side by side. > such that the movie Her is referenced by Altman You're creating a causal connection without a p…

The objective parts don’t disprove that OpenAI set out to make an AI that sounded like Scarlett Johanson to use as a marketing ploy. In fact, I’d argue it’s more likely that’s exactly what the evidence suggests they did. But maybe a judge will get to rule on whose interpretation of the facts is correct.

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

#859

Post by Suppafly »

supermatt wrote: post #697
tptacek wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They hired the actor that did the voice months before they contacted SJ . The reaction on this site to the news that this story was false is kind of mindbending.

Even if the voice actor was sourced before they originally contacted SJ, it was clearly the intent to sound like her. There are so many other distinctive voices they could have chosen, but instead they decided to go as close as possible to "her" as they could. Many people thought it was SJ until she stated it wasn't. I appreciate the voice actor may sound like that naturally, but its hardly coincidental that the voic…

>Even if the voice actor was sourced before they originally contacted SJ, it was clearly the intent to sound like her.

Her, being the voice SJ did for the movie, not SJ's conversational voice which is somewhat different.

If OpenAI were smart, they did it in a chinese wall manner and looked for someone whose voice sounded like the movie without involving SJ's voice in the discussion.

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

#860

Post by pclmulqdq »

eagleinparadise wrote: post #806
jmull wrote: post #631

Well, here are some things that aren't really being disputed: * OpenAI wanted an AI voice that sounds like SJ * SJ declined * OpenAI got an AI voice that sounds like SJ anyway I guess they want us to believe this happened without shenanigans, but it's bit hard to. The headline of the article is a little funny, because records can't really show they weren't looking for an SJ sound-alike. They can just show that those…

So what? They’re free to hire whoever they want to be a voice actor. It’s not illegal for them to hire someone that sounds like Barack Obama.

If you say "yes we can" as your corporate announcement of that person who sounds like Obama, and one of your employees (or rather ex-executives) says "the secret ingredient in AGI is Obama", it actually can be illegal. The main issue in NIL rights (as with trademarks) isn't similarity - it's brand confusion.
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