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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

#901

Post by FireBeyond »

tptacek wrote: post #871
FireBeyond wrote: post #807

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where? Right now you have "An anonymous person says that an anonymous person said this to him in an email". That's a pretty low bar for "produced the actual voice artist".

To the Washington Post, which verified it. The Post doesn't much care if you can verify their work, because no reasonable person believes they're making this up.

Words are important. The WaPo didn't verify the voice actor at all:

- "The agent said the actress confirmed..."

- "In a statement from the actress provided by the agent..."

The WaPo hasn't spoken to or verified who the voice actor is.

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

#902

Post by BeefWellington »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #894
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.

Tbf here Altman really screwed this over with that tweet and very sudden contacting. There probably wouldn't be much of a case otherwise. If I had to guess the best faith order of events (more than what OpenAi deserves): - someone liked Her (clearly) - they got a voice that sounded like Her, subconsciously (this is fine) - someone high up hears it and thinks "wow this sounds like SJ!" (again, fine) - they think "hey,…

Just how many "Good faith mistakes" is a company / CEO permitted to make before a person stops believing the good faith part?

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

#903

Post by johnnyanmac »

BeefWellington wrote: post #902
johnnyanmac wrote: post #894

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbf here Altman really screwed this over with that tweet and very sudden contacting. There probably wouldn't be much of a case otherwise. If I had to guess the best faith order of events (more than what OpenAi deserves): - someone liked Her (clearly) - they got a voice that sounded like Her, subconsciously (this is fine) - someone high up hears it and thinks "wow this sounds like SJ!" (again, fine) - they think "hey,…

Just how many "Good faith mistakes" is a company / CEO permitted to make before a person stops believing the good faith part?

I'm a pretty forgiving person, I don't really mind mistakes as long they are 1) admitted to 2) steps are taken to actively reverse course, and 3) guidelines are taken to prevent the same mistakes from happening.

But you more or less drain thst good faith when you are caught with your pants down and decide instead to double down. So I was pretty much against OpenAI ever since the whole "paying for training data is expensive" response during the NYT trials.

----

In general, the populace can be pretty unforgiving (sometimes justified, sometimes not). It really only takes one PR blunder to tank thst good faith. And much longer to restore it.

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

#904

Post by WalterBright »

giobox wrote: post #762
WalterBright wrote: post #761

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Computers have had conversational voices at least since Lost In Space.

I think we can surely all mostly agree 'her' presents a much more realistic portrayal of a near-term future than Lost in Space et al.

I was referring to the robot's voice.

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

#905

Post by rmbyrro »

gs17 wrote: post #804
rmbyrro wrote: post #739

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a better characterization would be: * OpenAI wanted an AI voice that is SJ's voice * SJ declined * OpenAI got an AI voice from another person that sounds like SJ

That would require a step 3 where they get in a time machine: > But while many hear an eerie resemblance between “Sky” and Johansson’s “Her” character, an actress was hired to create the Sky voice months before Altman contacted Johansson, according to documents, recordings, casting directors and the actress’s agent.

In that case, it's going to be even harder to prove any wrong doing by OpenAI.

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

#906

Post by BeefWellington »

Matticus_Rex wrote: post #483
theultdev wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ford hired impersonators, she's not an impersonator, that's her real voice. She's allowed to be a voice actor using her real voice. Your can point to the "Her" tweet, but it's a pretty flimsy argument.

This is correct, and is very different from both the Midler and Waits cases. The courts are never going to tell a voice actor she can't use her real voice because she sounds too much like a famous person. And besides, it sounds more like Rashida Jones anyway. It's clearly not an impersonation.

They are unlikely to tell the voice actor anything, since OpenAI is the problematic party here.

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

#907

Post by qarl »

tangentstar wrote: post #898
tptacek wrote: post #863

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A random person's normal speaking voice is nobody's intellectual property. The burden would have been on SJ to prove that the voice actor they hired was "impersonating" SJ. She was not: the Washington Post got her to record a voice sample to illustrate that she wasn't doing an impersonation. Unless & until some 3rd other shoe drops, what we know now strongly --- overwhelmingly, really --- suggests that there was simp…

You’re right that a random person’s voice is not IP, but SJ is not a random person. She’s much more like Mr. Waits or Ms. Milder than you or I. I don’t believe the burden would be to prove that the voice actor was impersonating, but that she was misappropriating. Walking down the street sounding like Bette Midler isn’t a problem but covering her song with an approximation of her voice is. You are dead right that the…

> You are dead right that the order of operations recently uncovered precludes misappropriation.

I don't think that follows. It's entirely possible that OpenAI wanted to get ScarJo, but believed that simply wasn't possible so went with a second choice. Later they decided they might as well try anyway.

This scenario does not seem implausible in the least.

Remember, Sam Altman has stated that "Her" is his favorite movie. It's inconceivable that he never considered marketing his very similar product using the film's IP.

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

#908

Post by sanderjd »

skybrian wrote: post #888
sanderjd wrote: post #800

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: if you think about it, yes it is.

To spell it out, based on the date, it's very weak evidence for something that happened many months before.

To spell it out in the way that doesn't require a crazy level of suspension of disbelief:

Based on the date (right after the public release of the assistant), it is actually very strong evidence for "we thought it would be awesome to have an AI voice companion that sounds like the one in Her", which, combined with the (undisputed) revelation that they indeed tried (twice) to get the person who did that voice, is a very strong indicator of the intent of the thing that happened many months before.

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

#909

Post by Repulsion9513 »

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.

Except the story isn't false? They wanted her voice, they got her voice*, they did marketing around her voice, but it's not her voice, she didn't want to give them her voice.

Notice how the only asterisk there is "it's technically not her voice, it's just someone who they picked because she sounded just like her"

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

#910

Post by Repulsion9513 »

tptacek wrote: post #865
supermatt wrote: post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is not a thing. They hired a voice actor, who spoke in her normal speaking voice. That voice is not SJ's intellectual property, no matter what it sounds like. Further, I don't know how you can say any intention here is "clear", especially given the track record on this particular story, which has been abysmal even after this story was published . They could have taken auditions from 50 voice actors, come across…

What part of "actor" in "voice actor" did you not understand? You don't hire an actor to play themselves generally. "SJ" was not playing herself in Her.
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