Actress Scarlett Johansson claims OpenAI copied her voice for ChatGPT 4.0.

Johansson says Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, reached out to her to hire her as the voice of ChatGPT 4.0 because he believed her voice was comforting to people. “He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI,” claims Johansson in this statement to the New York Times.

Johansson declined the offer, even after Altman contacted her agent two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released. When the newest system with a voice called Sky debuted, many noted that the voice sounded similar to hers.

“When I heard the released demo, 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,” she said. “Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word, “her”—a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human.”

OpenAI insists that the voice is not Johansson’s. “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,” said Altman.

In a blog post detailing the process behind selecting the voices for ChatGPT 4.0, OpenAI said “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. To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents.”

After the release, Johansson says she hired legal counsel who wrote two letters to Altman and OpenAI and requesting detailed information behind the process used to create the Sky voice. After these letters were received, OpenAI took down the Sky voice.

“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,” concluded Johansson. “I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”