TECH NEWS – The GPT-4o large language model (LLM) released last week reminded many of a 2013 movie, as one of its features (perhaps not coincidentally?) resembled a well-known voice.

In 2013, the sci-fi film Her was released, in which Scarlett Johansson voiced an artificial intelligence interface, Samantha. The movie is set in the near future and features the voice assistant’s emotional abilities. Its voice actor eventually develops a romantic relationship with Samantha. The GPT-4o comes remarkably close, as it can mimic emotions, and its voice, Sky, sounds almost exactly like the one Johansson produced in the movie! Is that where OpenAI got its inspiration?

The LLM’s voice is realistic and uses a different tone depending on the query. The conversational interface allows users to create a natural-sounding, real-time dialog between themselves and OpenAI’s work. The multimodal model is characterized by its ability to adapt to situations and dialogues based on emotions. In 2023, OpenAI launched several voices, with Cove, Breeze, Juniper, and Sky available to users.

Johannson’s testimony was shared on Twitter. She can’t believe it and was shocked that OpenAI created almost the same voice they used for Sky. She mentioned that Sam Altman, the company’s CEO, had previously tried to convince her to add her voice to ChatGPT 4.0 to bridge the gap between humans and AI. She refused, but now Johansson is taking the matter to court. In a blog post, OpenAI clarified the criteria for selecting voices. It’s an extensive process in which some professional actors are hired and paid above market rates for their work, and then, in reference to Sky’s voice, the company wrote that it wasn’t the voice on purpose and that it was another actress who provided it. They did not specify who exactly Sky’s voice is to protect her from possible harassment.

On Twitter, OpenAI said that they were temporarily suspending Sky until the matter was resolved, but did not give any reason as to WHY they had taken it down. In the meantime, first Samantha’s voice and then Sky’s voice can be heard in the two videos below…

Source: X