Scarlett Johansson refused to voice OpenAI’s chatbot because she worried it would be “strange” for her kids.
Scarlett Johansson has given her thoughts on her recent AI row
The ‘Lost In Translation’ star hit headlines earlier this year when she slammed the company behind ChatGPT for launching a new chatbot called Sky with a voice “eerily similar” to her own after she previously turned down an offer to provide the voice herself – and she’s now insisted she just didn’t want to get involved with the project.
Scarlett told the New York Times: “[I] actively avoided being a part of the [AI] conversation, which was what made it so disturbing. I was like, ‘How did I get wrapped up in this?’ It was crazy. I was so angry.
“I felt I did not want to be at the forefront of that. I just felt it went against my core values. I don’t like to kiss and tell. He [OpenAI CEO Sam Altman] came to me with this and I didn’t tell anybody except my husband … I also felt for my children it would be strange. I try to be mindful of them.”
The 39-year-old actress went on to warn of the dangers of deepfake technology, describing it as a “dark wormhole you can never climb your way out of”.
She added: “Once you try to take something down in one area, it pops up somewhere else. There are other countries that have different legislation and rules.
“If your ex-partner is putting out revenge, deepfake porn, your whole life can be completely ruined. I think technologies move faster than our fragile human egos can process it, and you see the effects all over, especially with young people. This technology is coming like a thousand-foot wave.”
Scarlett previously declared she was “shocked” and “angered” over the choice of voice for the chatbot, but OpenAI boss Sam Altman clarified Sky was an actor was used to create Sky and it wasn’t a deliberate attempt to mimic the movie star.
In a statement to The Verge, Altman said: “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.”
