Top Line
OpenAI is facing a lawsuit from actress Scarlett Johansson after she claimed that the voice of a now-deleted chatbot called “Sky” by ChatGPT's developers sounded eerily similar to her. This is the latest legal issue raised by artificial intelligence, and with voices now easy to replicate, the issue could easily affect anyone, experts told Forbes.
Scarlett Johansson attended the premiere of “Her” at the 8th Rome Film Festival, in which she has a voice role. … [+]
Key Facts
Experts told Forbes that the legal issues at stake in Johansson's battle with OpenAI are neither unique to AI nor especially modern, pointing to similarities with the successful voice imitation and “soundlike” lawsuits brought by singers Bette Midler and Tom Waits against Ford and Frito-Lay in the 1980s.
Foley & Lardner partner Jeffrey Green and associate Ariane Jhaveri explained in an email that Johansson could potentially bring several claims against Open AI under current law, including privacy rights, copyright, false endorsement and rights of publicity, which protect an individual's identifiable characteristics (such as name or likeness) from being used without permission and are particularly strong in California.
While it may be illegal, this means “other celebrities could well become targets,” Green and Jhaveri said, adding that if this were to happen, they would likely face the same or similar issues as Johansson.
But advances in technology that makes it easier and more accurate to reproduce voices and other characteristics have made the impersonation problem worse, and Tiffany Lee, a law professor at the University of San Francisco, said the issue extends well beyond Hollywood.
“It's not just celebrities or public figures – anyone can be targeted by people using AI to replicate their voice,” Lee warned, citing the prevalence of AI phone scams that replicate people's voices as an example, and urged lawmakers to update the law “to keep up with modern technology.”
Green and Jabali said Johansson's case “highlights the growing need for clearer laws regulating the use of individuals' voices, images and other personal or identifiable information,” and that previous laws have been hampered by being “piecemeal or limited to individual states.”
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News Peg
On Monday, ChatGPT removed the voice of its chatbot, Sky, over concerns that it resembled Johansson. The actress, who was “shocked” by the AI voice assistant, claims that Sky sounded so similar to her that even close friends thought it was her. The public also widely noticed the connection, with Johansson saying that OpenAI had approached her twice to voice the assistant, but was unsuccessful. OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman has previously said that “Her” is one of his favorite movies, and after the voice was revealed in a ChatGPT update, he cryptically tweeted “Her” on X. Johansson voiced the role of the virtual assistant in the film. OpenAI itself acknowledged the similarity between Sky and Johansson's voice, but stressed that the voice was “not an imitation,” saying it was “another professional actress using her own natural speaking voice” and that the similarity was not intentional.
How strong is Scarlett Johansson's case against Openai?
Experts told Forbes that there are many unresolved issues in the case, and the outcome of the potential lawsuit (which has yet to be filed) will depend heavily on the amount of information that is not yet available, public, or verified. Stanford law professor Mark Lemley told Forbes that Johansson appears to be asserting her right of publicity and building a “fairly strong case” against Open AI, citing “efforts to mimic not only Johansson's but also 'her's' AI voice, repeated attempts to hire Johansson, and Altman's tweets in which he specifically mentioned 'her.'” Green and Jhaveri stressed that while any outcome will depend on applicable legal principles and the court's interpretation of the facts, Open AI's offer suggests there is some kind of connection between Sky and Johansson. “Open AI would not have sought her consent if they did not believe the voice was modeled after Johansson.”
Important Quotes
“I think it's important to recognize that this can happen to anyone, but not everyone has the power and resources that celebrities have to fight back legally,” Lee said. “That's why we need legal protections to protect us all.”
Points to note
Lemley doesn't think new laws are needed to protect people from copycats in cases like this. “I don't know if new laws are needed because I think existing laws make it illegal,” he said. But Lemley said Congress is “actively considering a federal right of publicity, like California's, to address this issue.” Looking ahead, he said this case of Drake and The Weeknd masquerading as “just the beginning of legal issues surrounding AI copycats.”
Forbes Rating
Altman has an estimated net worth of $1 billion. His wealth does not come from OpenAI (he does not own any shares in the company), but from a series of valuable investments, including investments in fintech company Stripe, social media platform Reddit, and fusion venture firm Helion. Prior to OpenAI, Altman founded social mapping company Loopt and served as partner and president of the well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator.
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