Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Amal Clooney weighs in on the war in Gaza, Jean Liu changes roles at the ride-hailing company she cofounded, and Scarlett Johansson thought ChatGPT’s new voice sounded like her, too. Have a lovely Tuesday.
– Owning her voice. Scarlett Johansson is taking on OpenAI. The demo of ChatGPT’s new voice assistant Sky last week led many to joke about the 2013 movie Her, in which Johansson voices an artificial intelligence system that falls in love with a human. One of ChatGPT’s five new voices sounded strikingly like the actress in that role, according to many listeners.
Turns out, Johansson thought Sky sounded like her too. And, she said in a statement yesterday, the similarities appeared after OpenAI asked her to be the new voice of ChatGPT—twice.
“I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that [OpenAI CEO Sam] Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference,” she said. She turned down OpenAI’s first offer and didn’t have time to respond to the second, she said. She said that her attorneys contacted OpenAI before the tech company announced it would take down the Sky voice on Sunday. OpenAI released a statement Monday evening saying the voice actor behind Sky’s voice was cast before any outreach to Johansson and was never meant to resemble her. Chief technology officer Mira Murati last week told NPR that the voice was “not based on the movie or a sci-fi story.”
If OpenAI thought it could skirt by with a loosely inspired approximation of Johansson’s voice, as her statement and Altman’s recent tweet of the word “her” suggests, it messed with the wrong actress. Johansson—frequently the highest-paid actress in Hollywood—has taken on a business giant before. In 2021, she sued Disney for breach of contract over the direct-to-streaming rollout of her Marvel film Black Widow. They settled later that year.
The fixation on Johansson as the voice of our AI-fueled future is troubling for other reasons. Virtual assistants have long featured female voices, from cars’ GPS features to Apple’s Siri. Critics say that a reliance on female voices reinforces stereotypes of women as helpers, there to meet people’s every need. Indeed, Altman told Johansson that her voice would be “comforting” to people in his initial pitch, she said in her statement. (OpenAI’s five initial Sky voices included a mix of male and female voices.)
And, Johansson pointed out in her statement, the incident transpires as creatives seek to protect their likenesses and work in Hollywood from AI replacements—and as women around the world wrestle with the consequences of nonconsensual deepfake images. If Johansson’s voice even tangentially contributed to the development of ChatGPT’s new bot, Johansson has made clear that she didn’t consent. And that should worry us all.
Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
The Broadsheet is Coins2Day’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Keating the peace. Colleen Keating will take over as CEO of Planet Fitness in a few weeks as the gym chain reels from backlash over a policy that allows members to use locker rooms that align with their gender identities. Keating is a veteran of the hotel sector who has voiced support for the LGBTQ+ community in the past. Wall Street Journal
- Changing routes. Jean Liu is stepping down as president and board member of Didi, the Chinese ride-hailing company she cofounded, after a nearly decade-long tenure in which she raised billions from investors like Apple and SoftBank. Investigations by Chinese regulators roiled the company, causing it to delist from the NYSE after it raised $4.4 billion in its 2021 debut. Liu will remain at the company as chief people officer. Financial Times
- Probing a payout. The WNBA is investigating a $100,000 sponsorship that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority gave to each player on the Las Vegas Aces. The authority struck the deals with individual players—not the team itself—and the league says the money could present an unfair financial advantage. Authority CEO Steve Hill said that the deal was made “the right way.” Washington Post
- Axing a tax. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says that the U.S. Will not support a global tax on billionaires that has been discussed by ministers from Brazil, France, Spain, Germany, and South Africa. The policy would tax billionaires annually on at least 2% of their wealth and is designed to stop them from relocating to different countries where taxes are lower. Wall Street Journal
- Amal in action. The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders over crimes in Gaza. Human rights attorney Amal Clooney was part of the panel that reviewed the evidence to reach that decision. She and the Clooney Foundation for Justice have been criticized on social media for staying silent amid the war. Barron's
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Ipsy names Francine Li CMO.
ON MY RADAR
Who was Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, really? New York Times
Will Miriam Adelson spend her billions on Trump again? Intelligencer
It's time to stop calling women 'accidental CEOs' Fast Company
PARTING WORDS
“Thinking about less understood identities like neurodivergence can help progress inclusion and cultivate a sense of belonging for all—without judgment or exclusion.”
— Karyn Twaronite, global vice chair for diversity, equity, and inclusiveness at EY, on the importance of recognizing neurodivergent women in the workplace
