{"id":30519,"date":"2024-05-21T12:47:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T16:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/?p=1060776"},"modified":"2024-05-21T12:47:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T16:47:10","slug":"scarlett-johansson-openai-copycat-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2024\/05\/21\/scarlett-johansson-openai-copycat-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI Made ChatGPT Sound Like Scarlett Johansson… But Is There Any Legal Problem With That?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"David

(Photo by Monica Schipper\/Getty Images for David Yurman)<\/p><\/div>\n

OpenAI recently previewed its new ChatGPT voice — “Sky” — and several folks immediately noticed it sounded eerily like Scarlett Johansson.<\/p>\n

So that’s where you go when you’re trapped in the Soul Stone.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the new ChatGPT sounded like Scarlett Johansson from Her<\/em>, where she played an artificial intelligence-driven assistant in a movie expressing the threat of emotional damage that a sufficiently developed AI could exact upon vulnerable human users.<\/p>\n

Apparently, OpenAI’s Sam Altman loves the movie and desperately wants his product to be inspired by it, forcing us to yet again repeat:<\/p>\n

\"GODqqyWXkAA4LD7\"<\/p>\n

In a statement released yesterday<\/a>, Johansson claims Altman asked her to provide the voice back in September — and then again two days before releasing the demo — and she declined both times. Then OpenAI released the very, very similar sounding product anyway and Johansson called her lawyers:<\/p>\n

As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, 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. Consequently, OpenAl reluctantly agreed to take down the “Sky” voice.<\/p>\n

In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity. I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If OpenAI built this voice off sampling Johansson’s voice — which is what she’s trying to surmise through counsel — then someone<\/em> likely has a copyright claim. Whether it would be Johansson herself or the studios she performed the sampled work for raises more complex questions, but the company would’ve taken copyrighted work and used it without permission. Unlike the cases being brought by other creatives, arguing that AI “training” on their work constitutes a copyright claim, reappropriating clips wholesale is obviously a problem.<\/p>\n

Altman feeling that he had to continue to try to find a way to pay her up to a couple days before the demo… well, it’s not great<\/em> evidence for OpenAI. On the other hand, maybe he’ll claim that they only got so far with non-infringing imitation and he still wanted to hire her to build out the system.<\/p>\n

If Sky didn’t use any of Scarlett’s audio samples, there’s not much of a case.\u00a0Kentucky Law professor Brian Frye thinks the mere sound of a voice — particularly if it’s just an impersonator — isn’t going to cut it here.<\/p>\n

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Copyright doesn\u2019t (& probably can\u2019t) protect the \u201csound of your voice.\u201d IMO OpenAI is perfectly within its rights to create an SJ clone voice & call it something else. That\u2019s the essence of nominative fair use. https:\/\/t.co\/vaFIkLrKmP<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/uGUTXcVRDz<\/a><\/p>\n

— Brian L. Frye (@brianlfrye) May 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n