The Scarlett Johansson-OpenAI feud reignites Hollywood’s fear of artificial intelligence

OpenAI’s explicit homage to the movie “Her,” which features a voice resembling Scarlett Johansson, is sparking a backlash against artificial intelligence across Hollywood, executives told Reuters.

Johansson’s accusation that the ChatGPT creator copied her performance in the Spike Jonze-directed feature after she failed to reach an agreement has reignited creative class anxiety over the existential threat posed by artificial intelligence, even as Hollywood studios test new tools and are considering alliances with OpenAI.

“It seemed like it really hit home,” said one industry executive. “It kind of puts a human face on it… There’s a famous tech company that did something to a person we know.”

In February, OpenAI wowed the world with movie-quality videos generated by text-to-video tool Sora. Since then, Hollywood executives and agents have met with the company multiple times to discuss potential creative partnerships and applications of the technology, according to agents and industry executives.

Johansson’s attack on OpenAI for using a sultry voice that she called “eerily similar” to her performance during public demonstrations of the latest version of ChatGPT is causing antagonism among some entertainment industry executives as they discuss closer collaboration on projects, people with direct knowledge told Reuters.

“It certainly doesn’t establish respectful cooperation between content creators and tech giants,” one studio executive said, calling OpenAI’s actions “hubris.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement Monday that the voice “does not belong to Scarlett Johansson and was never intended to resemble her. Before we contacted Ms. Johansson, we had cast the voice actor responsible for the voice of Sky.”

The company, whose largest investor is Microsoft, did not respond to requests for comment on its relationship with Hollywood after the dispute.

Even before the latest conflict, agents and executives who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity had for weeks raised concerns that OpenAI’s models appeared to be trained on copyrighted works, which the tech company considered fair use because they are publicly available in Internet. This is considered a major obstacle by some professional directors and filmmakers, who may be reluctant to use a tool built without permission on other people’s work.

However, entertainment technologists see Sora as a promising potential tool to streamline the process of creating movies and TV shows. They see applications of this technology in the near future that will accelerate the pace of digital effects.

Fox already uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT to recommend new TV shows and movies to viewers of its Tubi streaming service.

While OpenAI says it aims to protect copyrights – by blocking the ability to generate videos featuring famous characters like Superman or prominent actors like Jennifer Aniston – there are still concerns about how it will protect lesser-known performers.

Lost voice

Johansson’s conflict with OpenAI opens a new front in the fight between the content industry and the AI leader. According to John Yanchunis, a partner at the law firm Morgan & Morgan, Johansson has grounds to claim that OpenAI violated her right of publicity, which gives a person the right to control the commercial use of their name, image or likeness.

Singer Bette Midler used California law to reclaim her voice in a case that lawyers see as setting a precedent. She successfully sued Ford’s advertising agency, Young & Rubicam, for hiring a former backup singer to mime her rendition of “Do You Want to Dance?” in a car commercial after she turned down an offer to perform the song. The case, filed in 1987, went to the Supreme Court, which upheld her right to publicity. Tom Waits won a similar lawsuit in 1988 against Frito-Lay for an ad featuring a performance imitating Waits’ raspy singing style.

“In both cases, they were sonically similar performing songs made famous by singers, so people probably assumed it was the artists singing and promoting the products,” said Mark Lemley, director of Stanford’s Law, Science and Technology program.

Johansson’s case is less clear-cut than previous cases, although the attempt to imitate Johansson’s voice from “Her,” combined with Altman’s repeated efforts to hire her and his tweet referencing the film, make “a pretty strong case for Johansson,” Lemley said.

Jeffrey Bennett, general counsel of the SAG-AFTRA performers’ union, which played a key role in establishing publicity rights in California and other parts of the country, is pushing for federal rights of voice and publicity similar to federal copyright protections.

“We are thrilled that there is such a broad dialogue on this topic now,” Bennett said. “We have been trying to use the megaphone and shout about this for some time… We have been talking about the spread of deepfakes and now it will start to affect everyone. This is really a conversation. There must be a federal solution.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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