• This month OpenAI introduced a new version of ChatGPT with a voice assistant called Sky.
• The assistant drew comparisons to Scarlett Johansson’s voice in the 2014 movie about an AI – Her.
• It has now been revealed that OpenAI approached Johansson to be the voice of Sky, but she turned them down.

Earlier this month OpenAI revealed a new iteration of its generative AI platform called GPT-4o. The new iteration also features a voice assistant that the company dubs Sky, and when it demoed the AI (seen in the video below), it naturally drew several comparisons to Scarlett Johansson’s voice in the 2014 film Her.

As it turns out, OpenAI did have Scarlett Johansson’s voice in mind for Sky, even going as far as approaching the actress for the project, but she turned the startup down, according to a new statement shared with NPR.

Regardless of her decision not to voice Sky, it looks as if OpenAI has designed its AI voice assistant to bear a striking resemblance to the Black Widow actress.

“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system… After much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer. Nine months later, my friends, family, and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ‘Sky’ sounded like me,” her statement explained.

“I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference,” she added.

OpenAI, however, is pushing back on the claims that it copied Scarlett Johansson’s voice, but it has curiously chosen to place any integration of Sky’s voice into its genAI products on hold.

“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,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told The Verge in a statement.

The company also ran through its process for selecting voice actors earlier this week, in an apparent attempt to distance itself from any notion that it did indeed copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice.

“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. To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents,” it shared in a blog post.

While OpenAI is denying any copying or facsimile, as The Verge points out, Altman has welcomed the comparisons of Sky to the AI in the 2014 Spike Jonze film, even going so far as to post “her” on X shortly after the aforementioned demo was showcased to the world.

It remains unclear whether Johansson will be taking any further action, but her conclusion in the NPR-shared statement sums up the current state of affairs quite well.

“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. I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected,” she ended.