Scarlett Johansson’s Latest Legal Battle Shows How Recent Technology Can Really Threaten Celebrities
If you’ve watched the 2013 Oscar-winning film Her, then you know that Scarlett Johansson‘s voice, which was used as the AI robot Samantha’s voice in the movie, is quite soothing. After all, Johansson’s voice has the perfect blend of welcoming, warm and velvety all in one. And while her voice may have lingered in our minds after the movie, it seems OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took it one step further.
In a recent statement, the Lost in Translation star accused Altman of copying her voice in his recently launched ChatGPT AI voice dubbed “Sky.” In the statement, which was first shared by NPR, Johansson revealed Altman had initially reached out to her to voice his Chatbot in the fall of 2023. Upon some reflection, however, Johansson refused.
“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,” the actress wrote in a statement, per CNBC. “He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.”
“After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer,” she added.
Much to her surprise, however, when Sky’s voice was revealed to the world in early May, Sky’s and Johansson’s voices were uncannily similar (a fact her husband Colin Jost even joked about on Saturday Night Live).
“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,” she continued. “Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word ‘her’ – a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human.”
In fact, the tech CEO tweeted a simple yet cryptic “her” during launch day on May 13 (see it HERE!).
In Johansson’s statement, the actress also detailed that Altman’s team reached out to her once again two days before ChatGPT 4.0 was released. “Before we could connect, the system was out there,” she remembered.
“As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the ‘Sky’ voice,” she detailed.
As a result, Altman and his company have temporarily paused the use of Sky’s voice, marking an early win for Johansson.
“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,” she stated at the end. “I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”
On May 20, Altman released a statement of his own on the matter. “The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers,” Altman said in a statement, per CNBC. “We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson.”
“Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products,” Altman continued. “We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”
And while Altman and Johansson’s disagreement is surely far from over, we’re applauding the actress for speaking up and setting the example. After all, the rise of AI can pose a serious threat to celebrities in their likeness as technology advances. Kudos to her for taking a stand against it.
Before you go, click here to see the most important celebrity lawsuits over the past 15 years.