this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
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[–] lordmauve@programming.dev 6 points 6 months ago (10 children)

I doubt they are using Johansson's voice. I expect they need much more studio-quality training data than they would have for her.

The desire to create a "Her" might be real but explains why they chose a similar voice actress, made Sky the default, and continued to pursue Johansson to some day create the real thing.

Suspending the Sky voice looks guilty but it might be a temporary action while the legal team considers their response. There might be a non-zero risk of being found liable if there were directions in the voice casting process to seek a result comparable to Scarlet Johansson. You'd want to collect and assess correspondence to see if that's a possibility, which might take a while.

[–] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

They could easily make it based on publically available voice data, especially for an actress of her fame. That's how they were able to create AI versions of Biden's voice and other famous people.

That doesn't mean they did, but your first sentence implies they couldn't have, when they very easily could if they wanted to.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That doesn't make it legal, let alone ethical. As a performer, her likeness, including her voice, is protected by personality rights. There have been multiple lawsuits over soundalikes in the past.

[–] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Oh definitely. If they used her voice in that way, not okay at all. I'm not sure if they have because I keep seeing contradicting arguments, but if they did, 100% agree with you that just because it's out there, doesn't mean you can take it and profit on it.

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