When reel meets real: Scarlett Johansson sues ChatGPT as voice assistant sounds like her from film ‘Her’

Imagine waking up one day and the world listening to your voice which has been remodified and used for an AI-powered voice assistant. Now imagine not giving consent for it and yet being pulled into this mess. That’s what has happened with Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson.

The actress recently found out that ChatGPT has come out with a new update called Sky, a voice assistant very similar to how Scarlett Johansson sounded in her dystopian film Her with Joaquin Phoenix. What is twisted in all this is that Scarlett not once gave consent for it even after she was made the offer more than once. 

Scarlett Johansson has now sued. She hired legal counsel and sent OpenAI CEO Sam Altman two letters. Sam has “reluctantly agreed” to take down the “Sky” voice.

Scarlett Johansson "shocked" at ChatGPT voice assistant Sky sounding like her

In a statement shared with CNN, Scarlett said she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief” that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would use a synthetic voice released with an update to ChatGPT “so eerily similar” to hers.

Sky, much like Scarlett’s character in Her, talks in a flirtatious tone, and sounds overfamiliar and many users have complained that she sounds like she is a “male developer’s fantasy”.

After wide criticism for Sky by users and Scarlett’s legal team getting involved, Sky was taken down. 

In a post on X, OpenAI said, “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.”

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OpenAI had approached Scarlett for lending her voice but she declined the offer

There’s more to the story though, since Scarlett Johansson has now revealed that Sam Altman offered to hire her last September to voice the ChatGPT 4.0 system. She said she declined the offer for “personal reasons.”

“Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was out there,” she added. 

In her statement, the Black Widow actress added, “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.”

OpenAI CEO denies using Scarlett's voice for Sky

However, Sam denied using Scarlett’s voice and said that Sky was voiced by a different actress.

He said, “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.”

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The film 'Her'

For the unversed, Scarlett Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix starrer Her was a dystopian drama that came out in 2013. In the film, Scarlett voices an AI voice assistant with whom Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls in love, only to be left heartbroken when the AI admits she is also in love with hundreds of other users and later becomes inaccessible altogether.