Scarlett Johansson Says OpenAI’s Sam Altman Would Make a Good Marvel Villain

Over a month ago, OpenAI released its new, flirty voice assistant named Sky. The voice they used for the assistant sounded eerily like Scarlett Johansson, and that’s when the ‘Black Widow’ star decided to contact her lawyers.

Johansson revealed that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, twice requested to license her voice for a virtual assistant, which she declined both times. Despite her refusals, Johansson claims that OpenAI used a voice that sounded similar to hers in their new assistant.

For her, the situation feels like life imitating art. In 2013, she voiced an A.I. system in the movie ‘Her,’ which depicted a man falling in love with a virtual assistant named Samantha, focused on the potential dangers of realistic technology. Despite OpenAI distancing itself from the fact that it “borrowed” the voice, Altman himself referenced the movie on social media in a post with the word “her.”

OpenAI stated it couldn’t disclose the names of its voice professionals for privacy reasons. The company collaborated with unidentified directors and producers to create five voices—Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper, and Sky—recorded last summer in San Francisco. Nobody bought it.

Now in her most recent interview with the New York Times, Scarlet Johansson explained how surreal it was that she found herself in the middle of an AI struggle, considering that she tried to distance herself from the issues overall.

I had actively avoided being a part of the conversation, which was what made it so disturbing. I was like, ‘How did I get wrapped up in this? It was crazy. I was so angry.

Johansson also warned about the dangers of deepfakes and digital replicas:

It’s like this dark wormhole you can never climb your way out of. […]nce you try to take something down in one area, it pops up somewhere else. 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.

When asked whether Sam Altman would be a good Marvel villain ‘Fly me to the Moon’ star said that he would and added a detail:

I guess he would – maybe with a robotic arm.

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