<story><title>Sam Altman is showing us who he really is</title><url>https://slate.com/technology/2024/05/scarlett-johansson-ai-voice-sam-altman-openai.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>frankacter</author><text>While not defending OpenAI or Altman, the caveat here is that this was a voice actor using their natural voice, not an actor impersonating scarlett johansson.&lt;p&gt;Setting a precedent that if your natural voice sounds similar to a more famous actor precludes you from work would be a terrible precedent to set.</text></item><item><author>LeonB</author><text>In back to the future II, Crispin Glover didn’t sign up to be George McFly so they used facial prosthetics and impersonation to continue the George McFly character.&lt;p&gt;He sued Universal, and reportedly settled for $760,000.&lt;p&gt;Example article on the topic - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.hollywoodreporter.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;business-news&amp;#x2F;back-future-ii-a-legal-833705&amp;#x2F;amp&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.hollywoodreporter.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;business-news&amp;#x2F;bac...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>miohtama</author><text>There are hundreds of people with similar voices. If any voice actor can pull the same accent than Ms. Johansson, it should be fair game, as long it was the original training material? Voices cannot be copyrighted or be exclusive, although I am sure Hollywood will try to copyright them in some point.</text></item><item><author>panarky</author><text>Altman would have us believe it&amp;#x27;s all just an innocent misunderstanding but without actually saying so:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is he trying to suggest the company did not try to make the voice sound like her without her permission?&lt;p&gt;The statement sounds like it&amp;#x27;s written by a lawyer to be technically true while implying something that is actually false.&lt;p&gt;These are weasel words.&lt;p&gt;He sounds sneaky, evasive and intentionally deceptive.&lt;p&gt;We should not give a sneaky, deceptive and manipulative person this much power over our future.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dragonwriter</author><text>&amp;gt; Setting a precedent that if your natural voice sounds similar to a more famous actor precludes you from work would be a terrible precedent to set.&lt;p&gt;Yes, but literally no one anywhere is suggesting that the voice actress used would be banned from work because of any similarity between her voice and Johansson&amp;#x27;s; that’s an irrelevant strawman.&lt;p&gt;Some people &lt;i&gt;are&lt;/i&gt; arguing that there is considerable reason to believe that the totality of the circumstances of OpenAI’s particular use of her voice would make OpenAI liable under existing right of personality precedent, which, again, does not create liability for mere similarity of voice.</text></comment>
<story><title>Sam Altman is showing us who he really is</title><url>https://slate.com/technology/2024/05/scarlett-johansson-ai-voice-sam-altman-openai.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>frankacter</author><text>While not defending OpenAI or Altman, the caveat here is that this was a voice actor using their natural voice, not an actor impersonating scarlett johansson.&lt;p&gt;Setting a precedent that if your natural voice sounds similar to a more famous actor precludes you from work would be a terrible precedent to set.</text></item><item><author>LeonB</author><text>In back to the future II, Crispin Glover didn’t sign up to be George McFly so they used facial prosthetics and impersonation to continue the George McFly character.&lt;p&gt;He sued Universal, and reportedly settled for $760,000.&lt;p&gt;Example article on the topic - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.hollywoodreporter.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;business-news&amp;#x2F;back-future-ii-a-legal-833705&amp;#x2F;amp&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.hollywoodreporter.com&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;business-news&amp;#x2F;bac...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>miohtama</author><text>There are hundreds of people with similar voices. If any voice actor can pull the same accent than Ms. Johansson, it should be fair game, as long it was the original training material? Voices cannot be copyrighted or be exclusive, although I am sure Hollywood will try to copyright them in some point.</text></item><item><author>panarky</author><text>Altman would have us believe it&amp;#x27;s all just an innocent misunderstanding but without actually saying so:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is he trying to suggest the company did not try to make the voice sound like her without her permission?&lt;p&gt;The statement sounds like it&amp;#x27;s written by a lawyer to be technically true while implying something that is actually false.&lt;p&gt;These are weasel words.&lt;p&gt;He sounds sneaky, evasive and intentionally deceptive.&lt;p&gt;We should not give a sneaky, deceptive and manipulative person this much power over our future.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hluska</author><text>If we assume that Scarlett Johansson is telling the truth, why would they try to resume negotiations with her two days before they launched the model? If they found a good actor whose voice sounds like Scarlett Johansson, that’s a great argument. But if they found a good actor whose voice sounds like Scarlett Johansson because the real Scarlett Johansson said no, that gets more questionable.&lt;p&gt;When they did all that and still promoted the launch by directly referring to a Scarlett Johansson role, it got even more questionable.&lt;p&gt;I’m not pulling out my pitchforks but this is reckless.</text></comment>