ScarJo, thank you for your voice
An AI company showing poor ethical judgement? Say it isn't so!
Scarlett Johansson is no stranger to engaging lawyers. She launched a lawsuit against Disney when the mouse-themed media behemoth offered Black Widow on its streaming service simultaneously with the cinema release. As her compensation was linked to the box office haul, this was effectively a pay cut.
The case was settled out of court. Score one for creatives not being screwed around by the evil empires of the industry. Well, hopefully: the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Well, NOW SHE IS BACK! Take it away, Scarlett!
“Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system. He 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. He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.
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.
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 that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference. 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.
Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent, asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was out there.
As a result of their actions, I was forced to hire legal counsel, who wrote two letters to Mr. Altman and OpenAI, setting out what they had done and asking them to detail the exact process by which they created the "Sky" voice. Consequently, OpenAI reluctantly agreed to take down the "Sky" voice.
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.”
Consent is a principal that is highly relevant in the world of Generative AI. What are the LLMs learning from? Are those creatives (authors, artists, musicians…) being appropriately credited or compensated for their work? Where’s the transparency? Spoiler alert: There really isn’t any. Unless forced, that is: Following a class-action complaint, Midjourney released a list of the artists they absorb into their LLM machinations.
The TechBro narrative behind this story leaves a really sour taste in the mouth. Scarlett said no. That was taken as a ‘Yes waiting to happen’ and she was asked again closer to Sky’s release. She said no again. The TechBro passive aggressively tweets a reference to Scarlett’s past. And does the bad thing anyway. Then acts surprised when called out on his poor behaviour. Never change, TechBros.
Staff with responsibility for safeguarding have been leaving the company in recent times (and this is before this latest bombshell). Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike announced their departures over a week ago. In his goodbye post, Jan wrote: “Over the past years, safety culture and processes have taken a back seat to shiny products”. Damning. Nearly as damning as Elon Musk, clearly a beacon of morality and strong judgement, deciding you are acting unethically (he has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, with one of the stated reasons is that he is concerned about the ‘consequences’ of their recent change in direction).
I am grateful for Scarlett sticking up for creatives everywhere, using the power of her voice which will ultimately benefit others that don’t have her level of star presence. SAG-AFTRA have been seeking federal protection of actors’ likenesses and voices for some time, and they have released a statement supporting Johansson’s stance.
OpenAI have since stopped offering the ‘Sky’ voice. Their claim is that it is based on a professional actress who just happens to sound a lot like Scarlett Johansson. In the UK, those of a certain vintage (like me) would be stroking their chin thoughtfully and exclaiming, “Suuuuurrrreeeeee” at hearing this.
In their statement, OpenAI state that they ‘support the creative industry’. Well, yes, in the sense that a spider supports the wellbeing of any flies that stray into its web.
This one will keep on running for a while, that’s for sure.
For now, let’s hope that those responsible for developing AI pick one of the great mantras of our times and follow it. Perhaps, “With great power, comes great responsibility”? Or, “Just because you could, doesn’t mean that you should”?
Perhaps keep things really simple: “Don’t be a dick”.
