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Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

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Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#921

Well, that statement lays out a damning timeline: - OpenAI approached Scarlett last fall, and she refused. - Two days before the GPT-4o launch, they contacted her agent and asked that she reconsider. (Two days! This means they already had everything they needed to ship the product with Scarlett’s cloned voice.) - Not receiving a response, OpenAI demos the product anyway, with Sam tweeting “her” in reference to Scarle…

Well, if any one had doubts Altman is the classic mold of fuck-it-we-know-better-than-anyone tech bro, this is your proof.

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#922

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not going to lie, he had me. He appeared very genuine and fair in almost all media he appeared like podcasts but many of his actions are just so hard to justify.

I have exactly the same feeling as I think you do. When you reach the levels of success he has, there will always be people screaming that you are incompetent, evil and every other negative adjective under the sun. But he genuinely seemed to care about doing the right thing. But this is just so lacking of basic morals that I have to conclude that I was wrong, at least to an extent.

He just, to his credit, understands his public persona has to be the non-douchy-tech-bro and the media will eat it up. Much like a politician. He doesn't want to be like Elon or Travis K in public (though he probably agrees with them more than his public persona would imply).

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#923

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think majority agrees that we're ok with a few millionaire priviledge actors losing small amount of their value in favor of personal AI assistants for general populace. How is that even a topic worth discussing is trully perplexing.

I don’t know a single person who has ever mentioned wanting an AI assistant, and I know a lot of people who are creeped out by the idea. I live in a swing state and work for a big tech company but most of my friends aren’t in tech. So I’m not sure that a “majority agrees” about anything related to an AI assistant

Yet every single person uses an AI assistant every day when they Google something or ask their phone for who performs the song that's playing in the background. You must know some of these people?

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#924

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing about the situation is that Altman is willing to lie and steal a celebrity's voice for use in ChatGPT. What he did, the timeline, everything - is sleazy if, in fact, that's the story. The really concerning part here is that Altman is, and wants to be, a large part of AI regulation [0]. Quite the public contradiction. [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-openai-artificial...

if this account is true, Sam Altman is a deeply unethical human being. Given that he doesn't bring any technical know how to building of AGI, I just don't see the reason to have such a person in charge here. The new board should act.

because so many people ran cover for him, from paul graham to whos-who of silicon valley.

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#925
post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Impersonating someone’s voice isn’t stealing anything, and certainly not their identity.

If they are a celebrity actor it sure is.

Voice actors especially. Voice acting isn't what ScarJo is really "known for" but she's done a ton of work for animated films so her distinct voice really is a part of her livelihood.

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#926
post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be misunderstanding the legalities at work here: reaching out to her multiple times beforehand, along with tweets intended to underline the similarity to her work on Her, demonstrates intention. If they didn’t think they needed permission, why ask for permission multiple times and then yank it when she noticed? Answer: because they knew they needed permission, after working so hard to associate with Her,…

You could also ask: If Scarlett has a legal case already, why does she want legislation passed?

Before Roe vs Wade was overturned you might have asked if abortion is legal why do abortion rights advocates want legislation passed?

The answer is without legislation you are far more subject to whether a judge feels like changing the law.

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#927
post #782
post #731

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats really interesting about our timeline is when you look at the history of market capture in Big Oil, Telco, Pharma, Real Estate, Banks, Tobacco etc all the lobbying, bribing, competition killing used to be done behind the scenes within elite circles. The public hardly heard from or saw the mgmt of these firm in media until shit hit the fan. Today it feels like managment is in the media every 3 hours trying to ca…

So great to have twitter so the narcissistic psychopaths can't resist revealing themselves for clout.

I mean, to whatever extent it matters. All these outrageously rich morons still have tons of economic and social clout. They still have pages upon pages of fans foaming at the mouth for the opportunity to harass people asking basic questions. They still carry undue influence in our society and in our industry no matter how many times they are "outed."

What does being outed even mean anymore? It's just free advertising from all the outlets that feel they can derive revenue off your name being in their headlines. Nothing happens to them. SBF and Holmes being the notable exceptions, but that's because they stole from rich people.

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#928

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is what discovery is for. If this would ever get to that phase. Someone from OpenAi hired the agency who hired the voice talent (or talents) for the voice data. They sent them a brief explaining what they are looking for, followed by a metric ton of correspondence over samples and contracts and such. If anywhere during those written communications anyone wrote “we are looking for a ScarlettJ imitator”, or words…

I recall the basics from my contracts law class that it’s not against the law to hire an impersonator as long as you don’t claim it’s the celebrity. So it’s legal to hire someone who sounds like SJ. And likely legal to create a model that sounds like her. But there will likely need to be some disclaimer saying it’s not her voice. I expect that OpenAI’s defense will be something like “We wanted SJ. She said no, so we…

Odd. This wouldn't typically be covered in contracts class since it's an intellectual property issue beyond the scope of a contracts class. Scarlet Johansen didn't have a contract with OpenAI after all.

What you recall also doesn't sound correct given right of publicity laws.

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#929

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, how?

The above comment from MBCook captures it well but basically I would say that for the majority of people I know: Cons: the rise of scams, carbon emissions, and, some think, existential risk. Pros: ??? You can be more efficient at the email job you hate. And it gives you advice on gardening and home improvement so you don’t have to call your uncle. Cons outweigh the pros

Your pros list being empty is the real answer. Basically you don't know the pros because you haven't taken the time to find out.

Kinda delegitimizes your cons list too. I'm not going to bother word-by-word checking your work.

Re: Statement from Scarlett Johansson on the OpenAI "Sky" voice

#930
She should be humbled to have been selected. If AI is going to do one thing, its going to be the dethroning of the Hollywood elite. If a regular person had their voice cloned, it would not be news. The only reason it is news is because she is rich and powerful.

Celebrities need to get used to the fact that they will soon be no more important to a corporation than any other rank and file employee. AI is already able to conjure up whatever voices and personas we need at the ready and make the concept of actors all but a thing of the past.

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