OpenAI Says Sky Voice in ChatGPT Will Be Paused After Concerns It Sounds Too Much Like Scarlett Johansson (tomsguide.com) 54
OpenAI is pausing the use of the popular Sky voice in ChatGPT over concerns it sounds too much like the "Her" actress Scarlett Johansson. From a report: The company says the voices in ChatGPT were from paid voice actors. A final five were selected from an initial pool of 400 and it's purely a coincidence the unnamed actress behind the Sky voice has a similar tone to Johansson. Voice is about to become more prominent for OpenAI as it begins to roll out a new GPT-4o model into ChatGPT. With it will come an entirely new conversational interface where users can talk in real-time to a natural-sounding and emotion-mimicking AI.
While the Sky voice and a version of ChatGPT Voice have been around for some time, the comparison to Johansson became more obvious due to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and many others, drawing the similarity between the new AI model and the movie "Her". In "Her," Scarlett Johansson voices an advanced AI operating system named Samantha, who develops a romantic relationship with a lonely writer played by Joaquin Phoenix. With its ability to mimic emotional responses, the parallels from GPT-4o were obvious.
While the Sky voice and a version of ChatGPT Voice have been around for some time, the comparison to Johansson became more obvious due to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and many others, drawing the similarity between the new AI model and the movie "Her". In "Her," Scarlett Johansson voices an advanced AI operating system named Samantha, who develops a romantic relationship with a lonely writer played by Joaquin Phoenix. With its ability to mimic emotional responses, the parallels from GPT-4o were obvious.
What's the reason? (Score:3)
They are afraid she might sue?
Re:What's the reason? (Score:4, Interesting)
Worse, they are afraid they might have to pay likeness royalties.
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People who specialise in voice acting do lots of different voices. General actors mostly use their own voice, but because they look different it doesn't matter if they sound similar. And even if they look similar, they can change their appearance easily with a haircut or something.
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Yeah.
Seems like the very first thing they need to do to support their claim "the voices in ChatGPT were from paid voice actors" would be to release the name of the voice actor.
They should do this anyway; peoples' work should be recognized.
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It's like an amalgamation of, say, everything on youtube | grep SJ |chatgpt
In that case, they have explicitly lied:
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> There is no voice actor to name.
That's not how it works. You have to give it sample to train off to keep the voice consistent.
The model itself is trained off YT data, because when it hallucinates it sometimes says "subscribe to my channel".
Really the question is did they train off "Publicly available data" and not a VA.
It seems to be their mantra for questionable training data.
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Without prior approval, it is not up to OpenAI to name them, for obvious privacy reasons.
Re:What's the reason? (Score:4, Insightful)
Without prior approval, it is not up to OpenAI to name them, for obvious privacy reasons.
1. No, there's no protocol against crediting actors. Actors names are usually given in the credits, including voice actors; it's unusual to not credit the actors.
2. Actors want their work to be credited. This is how actors get work.
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Actors should be credited for their work. Voice actors should be credited for their voices.
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Most sci-fi authors and consumers would agree. But a decent piece of sci-fi will make you think of the possibilities - the good and the bad.
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Less than a year. (I prefer a different sort.)
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For myself, I'm looking forward to being able to converse with ChatGPT (or something) on long drives, and I don't envision it displacing or becoming my family, like "Her."
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Nobody sensible would, but I often see arguments here that something should be avoided because it's similar to some event in a movie that ends disastrously. (I don't think I've seen any that argue it *should* be done because it worked well in a movie.)
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They went around her when she would not agree (Score:5, Informative)
Looks like Open AI tried to get Scarlett to license her voice and she declined. It seems that they tried to imitate it anyway and they tried again to license it a couple of days before the release. Scarlett's statement:
"Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system," Johansson wrote in a statement, which a representative shared with NBC News. "He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.
After much consideration and for personal reasons, declined the offer.
Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named "Sky" sounded like me.
When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference. Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word "her" - a reference to the film in which | voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human.
Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was out there.
As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAl, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the "Sky" voice. Consequently, OpenAl reluctantly agreed to take down the "Sky" voice.
In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity. I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”
Overs or Unders? (Score:2)
Under the Skin was such a good movie.
Better Voice (Score:2)
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why hasn't Majel Barrett been made into a voice assistant yet? I would pay money to have her for my Siri.
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Wow-- that's an incredibly stupid and malicious move on Paramount's part.
From a technical standpoint, it might not matter so much-- Majel Barrett was in a *lot* of Star Trek (I think she's the only cast member to appear in every single TV incarnation), not to mention a long list of roles in other shows/movies, so she wouldn't be hard to deepfake even without the "phoneme" recordings. The real obstacle would be the legal rights to use of her "likeness". Maybe someone should petition her estate?
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I don't remember her in any Enterprise episodes.
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Per IMDB, she did play the computer voice in "Enterprise", but only for two episodes in the final season. Never really watched the show, but I assume there was some in-universe reason for that.
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I've been suggesting this for decades (not as voice assistant, but just as voice).
In particular, to announce the major stages of unix boot.
"Going multiuser".
I can't believe that no-one ever offered significant amounts for the rights to her voice.
Coincidence? (Score:2)
What are the odds?
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It doesn't even matter. Why should that actress not be able to work because Scarlett sounds like her? As long as it's not an explicit impersonation, Scarlett should just suck it up.
Still waiting for a GlaDOS voice (Score:3)
I mean, what could go wrong?
Re:Still waiting for a GlaDOS voice (Score:4, Funny)
Do you want deadly Neurotoxin?
Because that's how you get deadly Neurotoxin.
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You'd be able to use a potato as a UPS?
Who is it? (Score:2)
Can you please give us the name of the voice actress so we can get a Scarlett Johansen voice work done without paying Scarlett Johansen prices?
I have to imagine the voice actress would appreciate it also!
No answer yet but you can hear a sample here (Score:3, Interesting)
I still can't find who the voice actress is, even following secondary links - however you are curious what the Sky voice sounds like you can listen to examples here [openai.com]
Scroll down, choose some text to read and then there is a dropdown for the voice as well.
I have to admit that does sound a LOT like Johansen, but I am puzzled why that's really an issue since they clearly have someone else actually doing the voice. Unless (conspiracy theory) there is no real voice actor and they had AI "make up" the voice and it
SNL Weekend Update (Score:3)
the comparison to Johansson became more obvious due to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and many others, drawing the similarity between the new AI model and the movie "Her"
Saturday's SNL Weekend Update joke regarding the ChatGPT voice and Scarlett Johansson likely had something to do with the timing of the decision.
So? (Score:4, Insightful)
There are probably millions of women who "sound like Scarlett Johanssen".
She quite reasonably owns all rights to HER VOICE.
Not "every voice that's even slightly like hers".
(FWIW this will ultimately be the death of any sort of voice-actor IP fight vs AI that's coming because voices aren't THAT different. Impersonators are a thing, and any studio that doesn't want to pay $100k for Tom Hanks' voice can pay $1000 for a "Tom Hanks Impersonator's Voice" and that's the end of that.)
I like the actress but we need a teensy bit less fucking Cult of Personality in the West, thanks.
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OpenAI probably doesn't want people thinking Scarlett Johanssen has any association with them and vice versa.
How about adding a serious voice? (Score:3)
Could they please add a voice that doesn't sound like an overly enthusiastic valley girl? The current voices are excessively happy and enthusiastic. I don't want my computer to sound emotionless, but how about concise, serious and business like?
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https://www.narakeet.com/creat... [narakeet.com]
'Her' was unrealistic (Score:2)
Explain to me, please (Score:2)
...exactly why chatbots are set up to fake voices. Git me reasons why, other than for fraud or pr0n.
Australian (Score:2)
As an Australian, that Chat4o valley girl voice is unbearable.
liars (Score:2, Insightful)