Understand the dispute between actress Scarlett Johansson and ChatGPT

North American actress Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI, owner of ChatGPT, are in dispute over one of the voices in the new version of the chatbot, ChatGPT-40 – Sky. According to her, the company used his voice without authorization for dubbing.

OpenAI denies this. According to the company, the tool does not imitate Johansson’s voice. She would belong “to a different professional actress, using her own natural voice”. On Sunday (19 May) the company temporarily suspended the possibility of choosing Sky voice.

According to the actress, she was sought out in September 2023 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who proposed that she lend her voice to artificial intelligence – which she refused. However, after the launch of the new version of GPT, on May 13th – when demonstrations of the resources and voices were made –, Johansson claims to have noticed similarities between her voice and Sky.

“Nine months later [da proposta de Altman], my friends, family and the general public noticed how much the newest system called ‘Sky’ sounded like me. When I heard the demo released, I was shocked, angry, and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would follow a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and media outlets couldn’t tell the difference.”these Scarlett Johansson to the newspaper Washington Post.

The actress also told North American radio NPR who had to hire a lawyer to try to resolve the dispute. “As a result of your actions, I was forced to hire a lawyer, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAl, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the ‘Sky’ voice.”he declared.

In 2013, the actress lent her voice to the film “Her”, by Spike Jonze. In it, the protagonist Theodore, played by Joaquim Phoenix, falls in love and develops a relationship with his virtual assistant, Samantha, whose voice is that of Scarlett Johansson.