Scarlett Johansson Reveals That OpenAI Reached Out to Her To Use Her Voice

On Monday, OpenAI announced it is discontinuing one of ChatGPT’s voices after users highlighted its resemblance to Scarlett Johansson. Johansson also revealed in a statement that she hired legal counsel to investigate the Sky voice and obtain details about its development. The Sky voice, which was used in a demo of OpenAI’s new GPT-4o model last week, is now on hold.

In a blog post, OpenAI wrote, “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.” The company added, “To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents.”

Last week, a video of the demo circulated widely on social media, with users pointing out the voice’s resemblance to Scarlett Johansson’s. Some mocked the voice for sounding excessively flirtatious, while others criticized it as catering to a male fantasy.

The seductive voice has been compared to the movie “Her,” which was released in 2013. In the movie, Scarlett Johansson provides the alluring tones for a virtual assistant, and Joaquin Phoenix’s character finds himself falling in love with this digital companion.

While the company has not directly compared Sky’s voice to Scarlett Johansson’s, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hinted at the similarity by tweeting the word “Her” after the company’s event.

Later on Monday, Scarlett Johansson issued a statement, saying, “Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system. 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. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.”

She continued, “After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer. Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me.”

In the statement, she also mentioned that she was “forced to hire legal counsel” and that OpenAI “reluctantly agreed” to take down the Sky voice.

The company’s recent demo intended to highlight the chatbot’s improved conversational skills, however, it went viral due to the chatbot’s flirty responses, which included frequent giggles at nearly everything an OpenAI employee said. There was a point when the chatbot remarked, “Wow, that’s quite the outfit you’ve got on.” Later, after receiving a compliment, it responded, “Stop it, you’re making me blush.”

OpenAI said in the blog post that it wants the voices of its chatbots to sound “approachable” and to “inspire trust.” Additionally, it wants them to have a “warm, engaging, confidence-inspiring, charismatic voice.”

In the future, OpenAI says it aims to “introduce additional voices in ChatGPT to better match the diverse interests and preferences of users.”

OpenAI provided a statement from Altman saying, “The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers. 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. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”