Hours after OpenAI announced that it would pause a ChatGPT voice that sounded like Hollywood film star Scarlett Johansson, the actress issued a statement saying she had a lawyer contact OpenAI CEO Sam Altman before the company took down its “Sky” voice option.
Johansson said in a statement that was reposted on X, formerly Twitter, that Altman contacted her last September and asked her to be the voice actress for its ChatGPT 4.0 system. She famously starred in a voice-only role in the movie Her, which is a romantic drama about a character who falls in love with an AI chatbot named Samantha. Altman told Johansson that she could “bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI,” she said, adding that Altman told her that hearing her voice could be a comfort to people.
