When the generative synthetic intelligence startup OpenAI launched a demo of its new ChatGPT 4o mannequin final week, it included in depth video of its “Voice Mode,” which options an emotive voice answering consumer questions.
Whereas there are a selection of voices out there, viewers observed that certainly one of them, “Sky,” sounded suspiciously like actress Scarlett Johansson, who portrayed the voice of an emotive AI within the 2013 movie Her (actually, OpenAI founder Sam Altman posted “her” on X through the demo).
Now, OpenAI says that it’s “pausing” using the Sky voice because it seeks to handle the issues from customers about such a well-recognized voice getting used.
“We’ve heard questions on how we selected the voices in ChatGPT, particularly Sky,” the corporate posted Monday morning. “We’re working to pause using Sky whereas we deal with them.”
In a weblog put up, the corporate acknowledged the issues, and defined its course of for creating the voices, noting that it ran an intensive casting course of
“We imagine that AI voices mustn’t intentionally mimic a star’s distinctive voice — Sky’s voice is just not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson however belongs to a unique skilled actress utilizing her personal pure talking voice,” the weblog put up stated. “To guard their privateness, we can not share the names of our voice skills.”
OpenAI says that it started working with “well-known, award-winning” casting administrators and producers in early 2023 to determine completely different voice actors that would develop into the voices within the product, and obtained over 400 submissions. That record was whittled all the way down to 14.
“We spoke with every actor concerning the imaginative and prescient for human-AI voice interactions and OpenAI, and mentioned the know-how’s capabilities, limitations, and the dangers concerned, in addition to the safeguards we’ve got carried out. It was essential to us that every actor understood the scope and intentions of Voice Mode earlier than committing to the mission,” the weblog put up continued, including that they might finally decide on the 5 ultimate voices.
These actors flew to San Francisco, the place the corporate led recording periods, earlier than releasing the voices into ChatGPT final fall.
The tech firm says that it’s going to add new voices to the platform over time.
“We help the inventive neighborhood and labored intently with the voice performing business to make sure we took the appropriate steps to solid ChatGPT’s voices,” it stated within the weblog put up. “Every actor receives compensation above top-of-market charges, and it will proceed for so long as their voices are utilized in our merchandise.”