Sky voice actor says nobody ever compared her to ScarJo before OpenAI drama
Sky voice actor says nobody ever compared her to ScarJo before OpenAI drama

Sky voice actor says nobody ever compared her to ScarJo before OpenAI drama

OpenAl is sticking to its story that it never intended to copy Scarlett Johansson's voice when seeking an actor for ChatGPT's "Sky" voice mode.
This all “feels personal," the voice actress said, "being that it’s just my natural voice and I’ve never been compared to her by the people who do know me closely.”
This comes at a time when many studios are otherwise intrigued by the idea of using AI for things like digital effects but remain, after a long history of avoiding copyright conflicts, hesitant to connect with any company potentially viewed as stealing artists' work without consent, Reuters reported.
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The issue is Altman made it murky. If my name is Joe McDonald, I'm allowed to open a hamburger shop. What I can't do is purposefully confuse customers for my personal gain.
This isn't parody, it's image and likeness. It is much less murky when they are promoting it as "Her" as in the movie starring Johansson as the voice of a sentient AI assistant.
What doing satire has to do with the matter?
How do you think it would go if OpenAI had used actors with the voices of Biden or Trump and Altman had tweeted “POTUS” just before the event?
Altman knew exactly what he was doing.
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Parody is legal. This is not parody.
To be fair, I have not looked into this case enough to have an opinion. Just wanted to point out the logic error.
So like, can you a record label sue another band for 'sounding like' the band that they are promoting?
It was more of a thing in the 90s, but there were always competing follow up bands (Sublime being followed by 311) that chased the sound of another artist.
Like should NSync be sued for being a boy band following in Backstreet Boys wake?
Not parody, but mimicry is fundamental to art.
I suppose my rather extreme views on copyright and up leaves me the outlier here, but I think the whole thing is rather absurdist.
It is not allowed. See Tom Waits vs. Frito Lay. Vocal timbre is considered to part of a celebrities' "likeness" and reproducing it to imply endorsement will get you landed in court. ScarJo is a huge Tom Waits fan so she knows the story.
That's not the same thing, they hired an impersonator and copied something really distinct about how he talked. Johansen's deep mid western accent is not distinct, and Sky was not doing an impression.
Lots of women speak like Scarlet. The first person to become famous cannot copyright a way millions of people speak and act.
My apologies to Tom Waits.
It was murky from the getgo. Open AI immediately came out and stated it was the voice of a hired voice actor and that all four or five voice options were, and that it was the voice actor using her own natural voice. The media has just chose to mostly completely ignore that and instead wanted to run with rumors that they stole ScarJos voice from the movie or by sampling a bunch of her work, because that sounds way more gossipy.
To your 2nd point though. The trump voicing stuff is a clear and apparent "parody" which is protected to be legally used. Even when Weird AL does his music, he doesn't actually have to get the artists permission. He just always has because he's a world treasure.
Yes well Sam (I'm a total dipshit, but it's ok cause I'm rich now) Altman tweeting out "Her" on launch day did not help matters.
Yeah this was the case right from the start. I'm not sure why people are just coming around now, I guess it helps that the actual voice actor has spoken out so it's concrete proof that she at least exists.
What would be neat is if ScarJo sues and wins, could the Jane Doe voice actor then hit ScarJo with an antitrust lawsuit? I mean, if the poor lady can't get work because the market for "that voice" is dominated by one actor: then what?
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Parody is supposed to be comedic in nature. This is not.
Look up parody in the dictionary, 'cause that isn't what it means.
If the voice actor actually made an obvious parody of the HER voice (as an example giving it an over the top southern drawl to subvert expectations about southern ludditism) but parodies can't just be "like that thing but we hired a cheaper voice actor".