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OpenAI, the creator of the popular artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, said today it will put a pause on the AI’s “Sky” voice after users commented that it sounded extremely similar to actress Scarlett Johansson.

The AI voice debuted last week during the company’s reveal of a new underlying model for ChatGPT called GPT-4o. Capable of understanding and responding to video, including facial expressions, it generated numerous headlines. The feminine voice was extremely expressive and came across as flirty and sexy, also perhaps too similar to Samantha, an AI assistant played by Johansson in the science fiction movie “Her.”

“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,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post this morning.

We’ve heard questions about how we chose the voices in ChatGPT, especially Sky. We are working to pause the use of Sky while we address them.

Read more about how we chose these voices: https://t.co/R8wwZjU36L

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) May 20, 2024

The Sky voice is one of multiple AI voices that ChatGPT received as part of an update in 2023 when voices were added to the company’s chatbot including Breeze, Cove, Ember and Juniper. The company said none of the voices was intended to mimic any particular actor or persona, but the intent was to deliver a personalized experience to users.

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman certainly muddied the water a bit by posting a single tweet on X the day of the demonstration that simply read, “her.” In the past, he mentioned that the movie is one of his favorite examples of how people should interact with AI, calling the film “prophetic.”

During the demonstration of GPT-4o an audience member noticed the striking similarity, but OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati denied that the voice was designed to sound like Johansson.

In a briefing with The Verge, Murati said, “Someone asked me in the audience this exact same question, and then she said, ‘Ah, maybe the reason I didn’t recognize it from ChatGPT is because the voice has so much personality and tonality.’”

According to the company, the five different voice profiles came from 400 different voice actor submissions, but it declined to reveal any names to protect their privacy.

Update: Johansson said in a statement that in fact Altman had approached her to offer her voice but she declined. “I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference,” Johansson said.

She also said she has hired legal counsel.

Image: Pixabay