By Mallory Mattingly
Marvel actress Scarlett Johansson won’t shy away from using her platform to speak out about artificial intelligence and its dangers, especially after an AI model seemed to use her voice without permission.
“There has to be some agreed-upon set of boundaries in order for [AI] to not be detrimental. I wish more people in the public eye would support and speak out about that — I don’t know why that’s not the case,” Johansson told Vanity Fair.
In 2024, Johansson was asked by Open AI’s CEO Sam Altman to voice the company’s new chatbot, Sky. She turned the offer down.
However, she later learned that the company did release a bot with a voice sounded exactly like hers, leaving Johansson “shocked, angered, and in disbelief.”
“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,” Johansson said in a statement, per Fox News Digital, after the incident. “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.”
Her fear? That others won’t be able to protect themselves.
“Particularly with the A.I. piece. It was like: If that can happen to me, how are we going to protect ourselves from this? There’s no boundary here; we’re setting ourselves up to be taken advantage of,” the actress told InStyle Magazine.
Altman later released a statement claiming that “The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers.”
Related: Scarlett Johansson Claims OpenAI Copied Her Voice Without Consent
He said that they cast Sky’s voice actor before ever reaching out to Johansson. However, “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,” he added.
But despite the apology, Johansson won’t back down from warning against AI.
“I don’t need to be beating the drum the whole time. That’s not my place. But, also, I’m not afraid of being invalidated,” she said.
“But now I see that I actually built something that…that I have a place here. And because of that, I’ve been able to stand up for myself and not feel like I would disappear. I can shoulder it,” she added, referencing the Hollywood career she worked hard to build and doesn’t want to see destroyed by AI.
While concerns about AI continue to build in Hollywood and other sectors, the technology isn’t going anywhere, so putting boundaries into place to keep actors, entertainers and everyday people safe will be key.
Read Next: Scarlett Johansson Takes Legal Action Against AI Image Use
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