OpenAI will give up Sky's voice on ChatGPT because of Scarlett Johansson

The artificial intelligence laboratory OpenAI has paused the voice of Sky from ChatGPT. This was due to its numerous comparisons to the sound of actress Scarlett Johansson in the 2013 film Her.

We've heard questions about how we chose the voices in ChatGPT, especially Sky. We are working to pause the use of Sky while we address them.

Read more about how we chose these voices: https://t.co/R8wwZjU36L

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 20, 2024

Earlier, the startup's technical director Mira Murati denied the deliberate imitation of the actress in an interview The Verge.

Although Johansson's voice was not directly mentioned, the lab's CEO Sam Altman was likely already aware of the similarities. After the presentation of the “omnimodel” GPT-4o, he tweeted the word “her” on X (formerly Twitter).

her

— Sam Altman (@sama) May 13, 2024

Also previously Altman statedthat “Her,” directed by Spike Jonze, in which Johansson voices a virtual assistant, is his favorite film.

There is no information about lawyers contacting OpenAI or problems related to Sky's resemblance to the actress.

ChatGPT voice mode and Sky model have been around since 2023. However, the feature became more prominent after the company presented its achievements in creating GPT-4o. The new algorithm can recognize emotions, allows you to interrupt yourself during a conversation and translate spoken language in real time.

According to the company, it selected five available sound profiles from 400 casting applications from actors.

OpenAI intends to launch ChatGPT's new voice capabilities “in the coming weeks” in a limited “alpha” version for Plus premium plan owners. The company plans to introduce additional sound profiles later to “better match users' diverse interests and preferences.”

Previously, OpenAI and Microsoft were accused of “stealing millions” of copyrighted articles to train chatbots ChatGPT and Copilot.