Scarlett Johansson vs OpenAI, when fiction meets reality

Johansson expressed her indignation at a recent release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT application. Indeed, the artificial intelligence company had approached the actress to be the voice of the GPT4.0 chatbot, nicknamed Sky.

Having turned down the proposal, Johansson became angry when she learned that the application had turned to a voice very similar to her own. She therefore instructed her lawyers to handle the case.

According to Variety, the actress, who lent her voice to Samantha in the film Her, saw the plot of this film becoming eerily similar to real-life events. After declining the offer from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, she expressed shock at the new Sky feature, mentioning that her friends and family were unable to distinguish the AI’s voice from her own.

This is what reportedly prompted the actress to take legal action. Johansson revealed in her statement that Altman had contacted her agent a few days before the GPT-4.0 dialog voice demonstration, asking if she wanted to reconsider.

However, according to her, the system was already in place before she could respond to this new request.

OpenAI has temporarily stopped using Sky’s voice.

In a statement, Sam Altman claims that the program’s voice was not intended to imitate Johansson’s, and that it was recorded by an actress whose natural voice was used for this version of the GPT-4.0 chatbot.

This incident reopens the debate on the rapid progress made in recent years by artificial intelligence technology, without a doubt.