Clickbait comes in many forms but throw a celebrity lawsuit and Big Tech in the ring together and the internet literally goes bonkers. Both OpenAI and Scarlett Johansson released statements following the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o that would disrupt normal programming for OpenAI and have 2nd time around CEO, Sam Altman, surrendering to star power.
The timeline of events that led to the launch of new demos of ChatGPT-4o, that would include voice capability, are worth detailing here. Sam Altman, founder and head of OpenAI, reached out to Scarlett Johansson to ask for her services in being the voice of ChatGPT years ago. She respectfully declined the offer. Altman is a big fan of the movie, Her, in which Johansson plays a friendly, flirty and genius virtual assistant. At the time of writing, it is available to stream on Foxtel or free on ABC iview, if you want to get across the backstory.
But, Faster Networks can give you the Her movie plot to give context as to why Altman might be such a huge fan.
Her is a 2013 sci-fi, romantic comedy feature directed by Spike Jonze and set in the near-future. It follows Theodore Twombly, a lonely writer who develops a romantic relationship with an artificial intelligence operating system named Samantha. The film navigates the feelings that develop between Theodore and his virtual writing assistant as they become intimate and dependent on each other for connection and companionship.
Only a decade on this film is now more real than the narrative journey depicted. Technology has evolved so quickly, sci-fi as a genre is looking vintage. Checking in on the themes of this film gives us greater scope to interpret how technology is used and misused and what questions it raises on how technology, as a tool, can be used positively or is a band-aid solution to much bigger societal issues, like loneliness.
This film was reviewed in a rewatch challenge recently on Offline podcast with special guest and political journalist/podcaster, Ezra Klein. He described Scarlett Johansson’s AI bot character, Samantha, as an intelligent, sentient creature that has hung out with dead philosophers, read every single one of the protagonist’s emails, can compose music on the fly, write a love letter, limitless possibilities abound. She doesn’t sound at all robotic and in fact, has a sensual voice that is charismatic. That theme of loneliness came up a lot and it was agreed that it is one thing the film got right in a futuristic sense.
Offline discuss how the relationship people have with technology is directly related to what individuals seek from their devices. This need is somewhat driven by loneliness and in turn, has a cyclical effect on isolation that further drives their addiction and reliance on social media to escape further isolation. Whether or not a bot in the long term can satisfy the need for actual human touch and collegiance is yet another aspect of AI to be explored.
Ezra alerts us to the many and varied opportunities for character building apps that really are a digital smorgasbord of personality traits that may attract you to another person. Surely, what is interesting about people and personalities generally, is that they are messy, unpredictable and oft times come with tension. Relationship building requires solving emotional problems that are contextual. Our emotional and social intelligence quotient is reliant on varying interactions that demand deliberation and practice.
Fast forward to May and ChatGPT-4o demo is released with a new AI character/voice called Sky and is ‘eerily similar’ to Scarlett Johansson (her words). Sam Altman’s X post on May 14 was a one word post, ‘Her’. It was around this time that ScarJo started getting messages from friends and family saying that the new AI bot voice sounded just like her (no pun). She immediately went into legal overdrive and it was a Sunday night in the dark offices of OpenAI that a press statement was drafted and sent, obviously to get out on the front foot of a media storm. On Monday morning, Scarlett Johansson released her own statement claiming that 2 days before the release of the demos she had been asked to reconsider her position on allowing them to use her voice, she says, “she didn’t even have time to respond”.
Ploughing through the comments on OpenAI’s website for a thread titled, Bring Sky Back, It Was The Best Voice it is easy to see how quickly addictive this voice became as close to the real thing as AI can offer. Users of the ChatGPT-4o demo have fast fallen in love, not unlike the Joaquin Phoenix’s character in Her fell for Samantha. They repeatedly confess their attachment and they don’t feel like any of the other potential voice options have anything close to the ‘warmth, calm and confidence’ that is present in Sky’s voice. They sound defensive of the culture that could shut this down and resigned to quit ChatGPT forever if they can’t replicate Sky’s voice.
The ethics of using a person’s voice without permission for a global AI product despite the artist’s clear and transparent request denial, wreaks of big tech arrogance and entitlement. OpenAI is being punished from all sides now, the users that were enjoying a deep connection with Sky and creatives that know their intellectual property is vulnerable to ambivalent misuse and aggressive sharing. This legal action will be settled in or out of court, Scarlett Johansson v Open AI.
