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Scarlett Johansson denied OpenAI the right to use her voice. They used it anyway. (boingboing.net)

submitted 6 months ago by Wilshire@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 24 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (7 children)

This story is blowing so fucking far out of proportion it's honestly incredible. Just so everyone is one the same page, here is a video timestamped to the voice, and immediately following the voice you can hear the voice from Her as well.

https://youtu.be/3BWjomtK-94?si=tDu574b4GySpnPIy&t=42

They are not similar other than they are both female.

The whole "her" thing that Altman threw up on twitter is just because the goddamned movie was a touchstone for the kind of thing that they are doing. They weren't cloning the fucking voice. It's like naming your new iguana Godzilla. It's not going to destroy Tokyo any time soon, it's just a cultural reference, you know, like a meme.

As far as Johansson goes, she is falling prey to this shit just like every other celebrity that has been railing against big bad AI. There are so many sheisty lawyers trying to get their hands on the first big win from an AI suit that they will say anything to get a celebrity to sue, because if their firm wins, they become the Anti-AI lawfirm that all others will seek in the future. They will print money, but only if something sticks, and so far, nothing has. This will be another case like any other, where they take it to court, and there is no real basis for anything, and it ends up being all over the news and then disappearing like the whole debacle over Sarah Silverman's book. In three months there will be another case against AI, and again, nothing will stick, because the people putting the bug in people's ears don't understand how to use most of the functionality of their cellphone, let alone how generative AI works.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 41 points 6 months ago

They are not similar other than they are both female.

I thought Ferengi were supposed to have good hearing.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 3 points 6 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/3BWjomtK-94?si=tDu574b4GySpnPIy&t=42

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[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago

I think they're both pretty similar. The main difference being that one is being played from a shitty phone speaker and recorded by a camera and the other is coming from studio quality audio.

[–] Dexx1s@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Finally, a sane response. Of course they'll "sound similar" because they're both female voices attempting to come off as friendly with an American accent.

I'm more on the side of opposing AI implementations but people are really reaching with this one. I'm assuming it was pulled just so they can get their legal defense in order.

This will be another case like any other, where they take it to court, and there is no real basis for anything

Because then they'll give up whoever it was that they used to voice the AI and it'll be mostly over. The thing is though that if they rush into a lawsuit too eagerly, nobody's going to want to work with them under a similar contract.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today -3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

It's still very much not nice to specifically use the reference from the movie given Scarlett clearly indicates she doesn't like what they are doing.

You can literally pick another reference - not that she is the only person ever playing a digital/robotic woman.

But they proceeded anyway. This signals disregard and disrespect to whatever sources they use, if nothing else.

[–] newDayRocks@lemmy.world 17 points 6 months ago

She did not indicate anything of the sort, just that she did not want to take part in it. Beyond that is speculation. She is asking for documentation proving they did not use her voice without permission to train the AI. That's perfectly fair.

[–] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

By all means, rattle off some references that will make sense in the context.

[–] Resonosity@lemmy.world -4 points 6 months ago

Yeah I thought OpenAI came out and said that they modeled the voice of a different actress, and they don't want to share their identity out of a respect for privacy.

It could just be a coincidence that Altman tweeted the image from Her, and people made the connection between the voice and ScarJo, especially since she did something extreme similar in that movie.

Could be coincidental. Could not be. We don't really have the evidence to say either way, but maybe ScarJo's suit will affect change so that better rights are granted to people and their digital twins.