Tangling with Scarlett Johansson is a move OpenAI may come to regret
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- OpenAI removed a ChatGPT voice that sounded like Scarlett Johansson after she lawyered up.
- It's risky territory — AI firms are often accused of misusing creative work, and this is a vivid, personal example.
- Johansson is a tough operator — she sued Disney in 2021 and got a settlement.
OpenAI made an enemy of Scarlett Johansson when it launched a ChatGPT voice that sounds a lot like her.
The superstar could be a foe that Sam Altman's AI company regrets tangling with.
In a statement to Business Insider on Monday, Johansson said she was "in disbelief" at the similarity between Sky, OpenAI's new product, and her own voice.
The company had asked her to collaborate on a voice product, she said — but she turned it down.
OpenAI says it was just a coincidence — that the voice is another woman who sounds like her.
But to Johansson, it seems like the company just went ahead without permission.
Johansson is not a stranger to squaring up to big companies, even those that employ her.
In 2021, she sued Disney over the release of "Black Widow," saying that it deprived her of earnings by modifying the movie's release schedule.
Disney settled. While the terms were never made public, it looked like a victory for Johansson and was clearly enough to satisfy her.
OpenAI in turn did not seem eager for a fight, pulling Sky at short notice.
It's understandable — Johansson's grievance is a vivid and powerful demonstration of the increasingly prominent concerns around AI.
In her statement, Johansson cited worries anyone could share — deepfakes, protecting your own likeliness.
She also cited grievances specific to creatives whose likeness is their source of income.
Last year, Hollywood was convulsed by strikes, fueled in part by actors anxious that AI could one day mimic them so well that they would lose their livelihoods.
Hollywood's power brokers conceded — the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers struck a deal with the SAG-AFTRA union requiring consent to create AI versions of performers.
It established a new norm that, in Johansson's view, OpenAI disregarded, in an echo of the archetypal Silicon Valley "move fast and break things" approach.
And Johansson is not unique. Smaller actors are suing AI firms, alleging the same kind of thing.
Some publishers, notably The New York Times, are suing too.
It alleges that OpenAI's used its archive to train products like ChatGPT, and is demanding a settlement in the billions of dollars.
Those cases are hard to get too excited about — a text archive is nowhere near as emotive a thing as a voice.
And that's what could make Johansson such a dangerous adversary — a superstar, an ax to grind, and the platform from which to do it.