OpenAI to Remove Sky Voice Resembling Scarlett Johansson

OpenAI has announced it will remove its Sky voice model, introduced last week at the GPT-4O launch, due to concerns over its resemblance to actress Scarlett Johansson’s voice. OpenAI executives had referenced the Spike Jonze movie "Her," in which Johansson’s character, an AI operating system named Samantha, develops a romantic relationship with Joaquin Phoenix’s character, to illustrate Sky’s capabilities.

“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," the Avengers star wrote.

"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,” she added.

"[Mr Altman] 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," Johansson wrote.

"He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people. 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," she wrote.

“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,” the company stated, adding that they could not disclose her name.

GPT-4O is designed to mimic emotional responses through its native multimodality, enabling it to understand and generate images, text, video, and speech. This feature allows for real-time conversations with an adaptable, emotionally expressive voice.

In its beta state, GPT-4O includes five voice models: Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper, and Sky. OpenAI has partnered with voice actors, licensing and sampling their voices for use in the app.

"Each actor receives compensation above top-of-market rates, and this will continue for as long as their voices are used in our products," the company said.

OpenAI had sought actors willing to participate and hired award-winning casting directors to find these voice actors. Last year, it received as many as 400 submissions.

"The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's, and it was never intended to resemble hers," Sam Altman, OpenAI founder and CEO, told the BBC.

"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,” he explained.

Story has been updated to incorporate quotes by Scarlett Johansson and Sam Altman