Scarlett Johansson battles OpenAI over stolen voice: Beth Kowitt

In a startling revelation, OpenAI's unveiling of Sky, its latest AI assistant, ignited controversy as it showcased unsettlingly human-like behaviours, particularly a voice akin to Scarlett Johansson's. Johansson, irked by the unauthorised use of her voice, took swift legal action against the tech giant. This clash epitomizes broader issues of gender bias in AI, where female-voiced assistants perpetuate stereotypes. Johansson's bold stance echoes her past battles for fairness, underscoring the power of influential women to challenge tech behemoths and reshape narratives..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..By Beth Kowitt.When OpenAI demoed its new artificial intelligence assistant Sky last week, the company's engineers made sure to showcase the attributes that they thought made it seem uncannily life-like. .___STEADY_PAYWALL___.The female-sounding voice they conversed with was ego-stroking ("Wow, that's quite the outfit you've got on!"); accommodating and subservient ("How can I brighten your day today?"); flirty and giggly ("Oh, stop it, you're making me blush!"). The company had even added a feature that allowed users to interrupt the model ("You can just butt in whenever you want," noted one of the presenters)..If this is OpenAI's idea of how an actual human woman should behave, it's no wonder the company thought it could get away with using a voice that sounded alarmingly close to that of actress Scarlett Johansson — without her permission..In a statement released Monday, Johansson said that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had twice tried to hire her to voice this latest version of ChatGPT. The first time she said no; the second time she didn't even have time to respond before the company released the demo. "I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine," Johansson wrote..Johansson got herself a lawyer, and OpenAI has since taken down the Sky voice. The company said it "was never intended to resemble" Johansson's, but Altman had already shown his hand. On the day the demo was released, he tweeted "her," the title of a movie in which Johansson voices an intelligent chatbot. And during the event, one of the engineers asked ChatGPT to tell a bedtime story about love and robots (weird, but okay), which is pretty much the plot of the film..It seems that even chatbots can't escape gender bias. OpenAI's Sky is just the latest example in a long history of female-voiced assistants — including Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana. They reliably and politely put together shopping lists, set alarms to make sure you get where you need to be on time, make your phone calls, and even entertain your children. They're effectively doing the kind of labor we expect women to take on both at work and at home, all while teaching the next generation that this is what women do..Read more: 🔒 OpenAI's seductive new GPT-4o blurs the lines between human and AI: Parmy Olson.Altman treated Johansson as he would his AI assistant, assuming she would happily do his bidding without pushback. He sorely miscalculated; Johansson, one of the world's highest paid actresses, is not going to put together anyone's shopping list. Her anger and willingness to fight for what she's owed is refreshingly at odds with the kind of stereotypes that OpenAI and its brethren perpetuate..It's not the first time Johansson has taken on a company that has defied her. In 2021, she sued Walt Disney Co., alleging that the company had breached her Black Widow contract by releasing the action movie on its streaming platform while it still played in theaters. Johansson, who was supposed to get a cut of ticket sales, argued that the move deprived her of potential earnings. She took legal action after the company basically ignored her, reportedly failing to respond to her initial offer or return calls and emails from her team..Disney and Johansson settled, but not before the entertainment giant put out a statement saying that the suit was "especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects" of the pandemic. Altman too tried to shame Johansson, telling her that hearing her voice would "help consumers feel comfortable" with AI. Both Disney and OpenAI ignored her and made the case that she should buck up and be a team player — it's hard to imagine them giving the same treatment to one of Hollywood's leading men (to say nothing of the companies' own "for the greater good" bona fides)..Johansson now has a track record of fighting for what's rightfully hers, and her willingness to do it so publicly and unapologetically is helping to check a powerful tech company in a way those with less money and agency cannot. It's a move that puts Johansson in the same camp as Taylor Swift, who withheld her music from Apple and Spotify when she felt that their terms hurt artists, especially those who had not reached her level of stardom..In trying to humanize its artificial intelligence, OpenAI made the mistake of dehumanizing a woman by stealing her voice — and an even bigger error in crossing one who could actually do something about it. Johansson is now reminding the company of what it looks like to deal with a powerful woman, not a deferential chatbot. .Read also:.🔒 Disney's Iger returns to reckon with his own 15-year legacyOpenAI's game-changing search product to rival Google and Perplexity🔒 OpenAI hostages: AI bulls concerned over ChatGPT dependency – Paul J. Davies.© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Scarlett Johansson battles OpenAI over stolen voice: Beth Kowitt

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