Scarlett Johansson says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman approached her last year to ask whether she would voice a new version of ChatGPT. She declined. Nine months later, she said she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief” that the company released a voice she and others found eerily similar to her own.
In a public statement this week, Johansson described the sequence: Altman told her that by voicing the system she “could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI.” She declined “after much consideration and for personal reasons.”
Johansson is closely associated with on-screen AI through her role as Samantha, the chatbot who forms an intimate relationship with a human character in Spike Jonze's 2013 film “Her.” After the similarity drew attention, Altman tweeted the single word “her,” which Johansson characterized as insinuating the resemblance was intentional.
OpenAI's Response and the Voice's Removal
OpenAI pulled the voice, called Sky, before Johansson went public. After she aired her allegations, Altman said the company had “cast the voice actor behind Sky's voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson” and that the AI's voice was “never intended to resemble hers.”
The dispute has become a flashpoint in a broader debate over how AI companies use voices, likenesses and creative work. Johansson framed the issue beyond her own case, writing that “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 said she looks “forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”
Johansson has previously taken on a large entertainment company over a contract dispute, reaching a settlement with Disney. She has hinted she may pursue the matter further, though no legal action has been confirmed.
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