Breakdown
- OpenAI drops the "Sky" voice for ChatGPT due to similarities with Scarlett Johansson's voice
- Many fans also didn't like how "flirty" the voice was, thinking it was designed for the male gaze
- OpenAI has said that this wasn't meant to copy Johansson's voice, but will still rework it anyway
OpenAI has announced that they will be removing one of the voices in ChatGPT, due to its similarities with Scarlett Johansson’s voice. AI mimicking other people’s voices has been a genuine fear for many, so this decision could be beneficial in the long run.
Called “Sky,” this voice proved to be controversial with users, as it sounded similar to Johansson’s voice in the acclaimed movie Her. For their part, OpenAI said that this voice wasn’t meant to copy the MCU star’s, but they will still remove it for everyone’s peace of mind.
“We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice—Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice,” OpenAI wrote in their blog. “To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents.”
The company behind ChatGPT also stated that they collaborated with a number of voice actors to ensure that each voice felt unique and timeless. It seems that OpenAI will work on the “Sky” voice and make it sound less like Johansson’s voice, since that seems to have been the cause of controversy.
Not helping with the similarities to Her was when OpenAI boss Sam Altman outright named the film on his Twitter last week. Although Altman could have simply been referring to the potential romance users might want with these AI voices, it didn’t help with people’s reactions. Others also didn’t like how the voice was so flirty, feeling like it was something made for the male gaze.
AI continues to be a controversial element in the arts, whether it’s video games or movies, and this argument won’t be stopping anytime soon. It was recently revealed that Google AI gets information from websites that Google itself suppresses, showing that the technology is a mixed bag.
ChatGPT and OpenAI will continue to have a presence in our lives, though they won’t be too prominent for a while. Hopefully, we can find a happy medium with AI, but that will take plenty of time.