OpenAI suspends ChatGPT's Scarlett Johansson-like 'Sky' voice

Users found the voice "Sky," reminiscent of Scarlett Johansson's, suspiciously similar to the emotive AI she voiced in the Spike Jonze film "Her." (Images via X)

Arguably one of the best artificial intelligence engines known to mankind, ChatGPT, released their newest version of their software, ChatGPT-4o. And it is something that is downright amazing. The new iterated version can now interact verbally with the user and can also respond to images shown to it through a camera. You wouldn’t be wrong if you told yourself, “this is the sh-t”, because it quite literally is ‘the sh-t’.

If you watched the live demo of ChatGPT-4o’s realtime conversational speech, it is absolutely crazy how the evolution of the chatbot-programmed-software has turned into an almost sentient like cyborg on your phone. But if you also payed close attention to its voice, (given you are a verified movie geek), its very possible that you would have found some similarities to the voice of actress Scarlett Johansson in the sci-fi/romance, ‘Her’ (2013).

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The voice reminiscent of Johansson’, called “Sky,” was picked up by users as suspiciously Johansonn-like, who portrayed the voice the emotive AI in the Spike Jonze-directed ‘Her’.

In fact, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman directly referenced "Her" after the event by posting a single word, "her," on X.

OpenAI responded to these concerns and said that they are “pausing” the use of Sky’s voice as it seeks to address the issue from users about the use of a familiar voice.

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

The company released a statement on Monday saying, “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 continued “To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents.”

OpenAI also revealed that selecting the voices for ChatGPT's voice mode was a meticulous five-month endeavor, involving professional voice actors, talent agencies, casting directors, and industry experts.

In a blogpost from OpenAI, the company said that the five voices of the chatbot were sampled from voice actors it partnered with.

To develop these personalities, they focused on qualities such as multilingualism and an "approachable" or "charismatic" voice that conveys a sense of timelessness.

OpenAI has also said that they will be adding new voices to the platform over time.

For those not acquainted with the Academy award winning movie (Best original screenplay), “Her”, the film, set in the near future, follows the story of Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), an isolated writer, who acquires a cutting-edge operating system tailored to fulfill every user's desire. Unexpectedly, Theodore finds himself in a romantic relationship with this AI (Scarlett Johansson).