...In response, Sam Altman has now issued a statement saying “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”, Sam Altman wrote.”
To clarify a few things about the letters from ScarJo’s lawyers: They weren’t cease and desist notices. It’s not initiating a lawsuit. The letters sought clarity about what exactly was fed to the model to produce the distinctive “Sky” voice.
(Yeah, the Altman statement seems to be emailed to journalists, despite being short. Not sure why he’s not just tweeting like previously.)
Sam Altman has apparently provided a statement to NPR apropos of https://www.npr.org/2024/05/20/1252495087/openai-pulls-ai-voice-that-was-compared-to-scarlett-johansson-in-the-movie-her , quoted on Twitter by the NPR journalist (second):
(Yeah, the Altman statement seems to be emailed to journalists, despite being short. Not sure why he’s not just tweeting like previously.)
Guessing his lawyers wrote this. And probably to match the medium of ScarJo’s initial statement to show respect to her.