Developers criticize OpenAI for disabling an AI voice for ChatGPT that sounded like Scarlett Johansson in the movie Her

Last year at an event, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his favorite science fiction movie was Her, a 2013 film in which a man falls in love with a virtual assistant. Now that same movie has caused another headache for Altman and his executive team.

In September - the same month that Altman showed his best movie - OpenAI released a set of voices to complement its larger ChatGPT language model. One of those voices, a sophisticated-sounding female named Skye, drew media attention last week for sounding like the same AI bot that was at the center of the movie Her, voiced by actress Scarlett Johansson.

"We believe that AI voices should not intentionally mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice - Skye's voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson, but belongs to another professional actress using her own natural voice," OpenAI said in a blog post on Sunday.

Despite this clarification, the company is disabling Sky's voice, according to a post on the X website late Sunday night, with no word on when it will return. Dozens of ChatGPT users have since lost access to the voice option, according to posts on the OpenAI developer forum.

The move appears to be a direct response to recent public attention - including a joke on a recent episode of Saturday Night Live - as the voice has been available for months. Altman, intentionally or not, contributed to speculation that Skye was inspired by Johansson by posting a one-word movie title, "her," on the X website last week, shortly after showing off the new OpenAI GPT-4o with updated voice capabilities.

OpenAI is already receiving feedback from users on the X website and on its own developer forum about Sky's removal.

"I believe it is unreasonable to remove a vote just because it remotely resembles another person," Ben Parry, an AI researcher not affiliated with OpenAI, wrote on the company's forum. "Such actions could set a dangerous precedent where people start demanding the removal of other voices based on subjective similarity."

Others point out that if the voice belongs to an individual actress, as OpenAI claims, it's unclear why the company should remove it. The decision sheds light on how a company at the forefront of AI development handles public criticism of the creative industries.

Actors have been voicing movies, audiobooks, and video games for decades, and voiceover chatbots are just the latest way to sell your voice. AI is also one of the biggest threats to their industry because this technology can cheaply read audiobooks or scripts instead of human actors.

"We are supporting the creative community and working closely with the voice actor industry to make sure we take the right steps to create ChatGPT voices," OpenAI said in a Sunday blog post.

Since the company is placing a big bet on voice in future models, it will likely continue to clash with creatives, whether they look like Johansson or not.