Scarlett Johansson Uses Real Voice To Needle OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Scarlett Johansson is using her very real voice to virtual snipe at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In an interview with The New York Times, the Her actor suggested Altman would make a good Marvel villain, “maybe with a robotic arm.”

Johansson and Altman publicly feuded in May when Altman’s OpenAI allegedly used an imitation of Johansson’s voice as an AI virtual assistant in the 2013 film Her. While OpenAI reluctantly agreed to withdraw the Her-like voice option while maintaining it was not, in fact, a Johansson imitation, the Her star herself says she was “shocked” and “angered” by the seeming use of her voice after she had specifically nixed the company’s offer.

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“I felt I did not want to be at the forefront of that,” Johansson said about turning down OpenAI’s original request. “I just felt it went against my core values. I don’t like to kiss and tell. He came to me with this and I didn’t tell anybody except my husband.”

“I also felt for my children it would be strange. I try to be mindful of them,” Johansson added.

In the Times interview with Maureen Dowd, Johansson calls AI-generated deepfakes a “dark wormhole you can never climb your way out of.”

“Once you try to take something down in one area, it pops up somewhere else,” she said. “There are other countries that have different legislation and rules. If your ex-partner is putting out revenge, deepfake porn, your whole life can be completely ruined.”

“I think technologies move faster than our fragile human egos can process it,” she added, “and you see the effects all over, especially with young people. This technology is coming like a thousand-foot wave.”

Johansson says she initially turned down OpenAI’s offer to be a voice of the ChatGPT system but when the company went forward with the plan anyway, the actor turned her lawyers loose.

While Johansson’s feelings for Altman and OpenAI don’t seem to have softened much in the past few months, her attitude toward Disney seems to be on sturdied ground these days. The Johansson-Disney dispute, which preceded the incident with OpenAI, stemmed from Disney’s decision to release her Marvel film Black Widow in both theaters and steaming via Disney+ Premier Access during the Covid days of July 2021. Their contract had maintained that the film would be released exclusively in theaters.

During the legal battle that followed, Disney said Johansson had a “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” and revealed her $20 million salary.

But Johansson insisted that the streaming plan would cost her millions of dollars in backend compensation. “I don’t hold a grudge,” Johansson says now. “I think it was just poor judgment and poor leadership at that time. It just felt very unprofessional to me, the entire ordeal. And honestly, I was incredibly disappointed, especially because I was holding out hope until, finally, my team was like, ‘You have to act.’”

Johansson currently is starring in the rom-com Fly Me to the Moon in theaters. Next up will be the latest Jurassic World entry.

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