OpenAI chose Sky’s voice actor months before Sam Altman contacted Scarlett Johansson and said it had no intention of finding someone who sounded like her. The Washington Post. An OpenAI flyer released last year was looking for “hot, attractive” actors, the publication said [and] charismatic” voices. They had to be between the ages of 25 and 45 and non-union, but OpenAI reportedly didn’t say it was looking for a Scarlett Johansson-like voice. If you remember, Johansson accused the company copying his likeness without permission for his Sky voice assistant.
This was reported by Sky’s voice agent Mail the company has never spoken about Johansson or the film His with their talents. OpenAI apparently didn’t match the actor’s recordings to Johansson either, as his natural voice sounded similar to Sky’s. Mail had listened. OpenAI product manager Joanne Jang told the publication that the company has chosen actors who want to work on artificial intelligence. He said all decisions about the AI voices project were made by the company’s Chief Technology Officer, Mira Murati, and that Altman was not closely involved in the process.
Jang also told the publication that to her, Sky doesn’t sound anything like Johansson. This was reported by Sky’s actress Mail through his agent, he said that he just uses his natural voice and that he has never been compared to Johansson by people who know him well. But in a statement shared by Johansson’s team with Engadget, he said he was shocked that OpenAI was pursuing a voice that “looked so eerily similar” to his after rejecting Altman’s offer that “his closest friends and news outlets couldn’t tell the difference.” ChatGPT with voice.
Johansson said Altman first contacted her with the offer in September 2023 and contacted her again just two days before the company made the pitch. GPT-4o to ask for reconsideration. Sky has been one of ChatGPT’s voices since September, but GPT-4o has empowered her to have more human-like conversations with users. This made the similarities with Johansson’s voice even clearer – Altman tweeted “his” after OpenAI demonstrated that the new big language model wasn’t helping the situation and invited more comparisons to the AI virtual assistant voiced by Johansson in the film. OpenAI stopped using Sky’s voice, much to Johansson’s dismay wrote in a blog post. The actor, however, said he stopped using Sky only after the company hired legal counsel, who wrote to Altman and the company to ask for an explanation.
If you’re wondering if Sky really does sound like Johansson, we’ve posted a video below so you can judge for yourself. This is a recording of Johansson’s statement read by a Sky voice assistant, posted on YouTube by Victor Mochere. Opinions are divided in the comments section, with some saying it sounds like him if he was a robot, while others say the voice sounds more like Rashida Jones.
