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Did Scarlett Johansson Turn Down OpenAI’s Offer to Use Her Voice?

Scarlett Johansson said she declined an offer to voice ChatGPT. After Sky launched, she said it sounded eerily similar to her; OpenAI said it was another actor’s voice and paused it in May 2024.
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Yes. Scarlett Johansson said she declined Sam Altman’s 2023 approach about voicing ChatGPT. Months later, after hearing ChatGPT’s Sky voice, she said it sounded “eerily similar” to her. OpenAI says Sky was voiced by another actor, was not intended to resemble Johansson, and had been cast before the company approached her. OpenAI paused Sky’s use on May 19, 2024; the sources cited here do not establish whether it has since returned or resolve the dispute legally.

What Johansson said she turned down

In a statement reported by the Associated Press on May 20, 2024, Johansson said Altman approached her in September 2023 about lending her voice to ChatGPT. She said he told her that her voice could be comforting to people uneasy with the technology. Johansson declined the offer.

OpenAI’s account supplies more detail about the timing: the company says Altman spoke with Johansson and her team on September 11, 2023, about potentially becoming a sixth ChatGPT voice, and that she declined through her agent about a week later. OpenAI also says Altman contacted her team again on May 10, 2024, to ask whether she might reconsider for a future additional voice. These dates and details are OpenAI’s account of the conversations.

Why Sky became part of the dispute

After hearing a released ChatGPT demo, Johansson said she was shocked and angered by how similar Sky sounded to her. In the statement AP reported, she said: “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.” That is Johansson’s assessment; the sources here do not provide an independent acoustic finding.

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OpenAI’s position is different. In a statement published May 20, 2024, Altman said: “The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers.” OpenAI says Sky was voiced by a different professional actress using her natural speaking voice, and that the actor had been cast before the company’s outreach to Johansson. The company also said, “We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice”. These are the parties’ reported positions, not a court’s findings.

What OpenAI says about the voice-selection timeline

OpenAI describes a selection process that began before its conversations with Johansson. The company says its casting agency and casting directors issued a call for talent on May 10, 2023, receiving more than 400 submissions in under a week. It says casting directors narrowed the field, selected five voices, and held recording sessions with the actors in San Francisco; OpenAI describes the process as spanning five months. These figures and the timeline are company-reported, not independently audited.

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Date Event Whose account
May 10, 2023 OpenAI says a casting call went out and received more than 400 submissions in under a week. OpenAI
May–July 2023 OpenAI says casting directors narrowed the field, chose five voices, and held San Francisco recording sessions. OpenAI
September 11, 2023 Altman spoke with Johansson and her team about a possible sixth ChatGPT voice, according to OpenAI. OpenAI
About a week later Johansson declined through her agent, according to OpenAI. OpenAI
September 25, 2023 OpenAI says it launched Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper, and Sky in ChatGPT. OpenAI
May 10, 2024 Altman contacted Johansson’s team to ask whether she might reconsider for a future additional voice, according to OpenAI. OpenAI
May 13, 2024 OpenAI introduced GPT-4o. The Los Angeles Times reported that Altman posted “her” on X that day. OpenAI; Los Angeles Times
May 19, 2024 OpenAI says it paused Sky’s use in its products out of respect for Johansson’s concerns. OpenAI

Johansson voiced Samantha, an AI assistant, in the 2013 film Her. That association helped make the film an obvious reference in public discussion of Sky. The Los Angeles Times reported that many observers read Altman’s “her” post as an allusion to the film, but the post alone does not establish what he intended.

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What is and is not established about the outcome

Johansson said she hired lawyers and that her team sought an explanation of OpenAI’s process. The Associated Press and OpenAI’s statement report the dispute and the company’s decision to pause Sky; the sources cited here do not establish a court judgment or a final legal resolution.

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OpenAI’s current ChatGPT Voice documentation describes Live, Advanced, and Standard experiences, with options that can depend on plan, workspace settings, region, app version, and account factors. It does not name Sky. The documented status here is therefore that Sky was paused as of May 19, 2024, according to OpenAI; current availability is not established by these sources.

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