Scarlett Johansson attacks ‘Marvel Villain’ Open AI CEO

Actress Scarlett Johansson, famous for her role as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has spoken out about Open AI CEO Sam Altman.

The two personalities have been at the heart of a much-exposed controversy in recent months, linked to the alleged use of Johansson’s voice for Sky, a voice feature in ChatGPT.

Scarlett Johansson says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman could be a Marvel villain (“maybe with a robotic arm”) after her voice was mimicked for ChatGPT without her consent.

“I actively avoided being a part of the [AI] conversation, which was what made it so disturbing. I was like, ‘How… pic.twitter.com/ItN5c9aUbp

— Variety (@Variety) July 17, 2024

Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, has incurred the wrath of Scarlett Johansson, as the actress openly criticized Altman, comparing him to a Marvel movie villain, for using her voice without her consent in a new voice assistant feature.

Launched last May, the feature was removed from the app just days after Johansson publicly pointed out that the voice used sounded uncannily like her own.

Many observers drew parallels between Sky and Scarlett Johansson’s role in the film Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix, where she lent her voice to Samantha, an artificial intelligence.

A tweet from OpenAI’s CEO referring to Her also fueled speculation, although Sam Altman later claimed that it was the natural voice of another actress that had been used for Sky.

It’s worth recalling that Johansson expressed her anger after discovering that one of the voices in the new ChatGPT feature resembled her own, especially as a few months earlier she had turned down an offer from Sam Altman to become one of the voices in the new ChatGPT feature.