OpenAI announced its decision to halt the use of one of its ChatGPT voices named Sky, after actress Scarlett Johansson raised concerns about its similarity to her own voice. Johansson, known for her role as an AI assistant in the film Her, expressed shock and disbelief upon hearing the released demo of the Sky voice, which she found eerily similar to her own. She revealed that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had approached her to lend her voice to the system but she declined the offer.
In response to Johansson’s statements, OpenAI explained that the voice of Sky belongs to a different professional actress and is not meant to deliberately mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice. The company acknowledged Johansson’s concerns and decided to pause using the Sky voice in its products out of respect for her.
OpenAI’s voice capabilities for ChatGPT were introduced in September, allowing users to engage in conversations with the AI assistant. The company recently announced that the feature would become free for all users with the mobile app.
The company’s latest generative AI model, GPT-4o, has enhanced capabilities to mimic human cadences in verbal responses and detect people’s moods. OpenAI aims to improve ChatGPT’s interactions by incorporating real-time reasoning across text, audio, and video, making the AI assistant more sophisticated than before.
