Hell Hath No Fury Like an A-lister’s Publicist
Flashy Pixels Issue 10: The Controversy Surrounding OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the Scarlett Johansson-Inspired Voice Assistant
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has had a tumultuous few weeks. There has been a series of departures, including co-founders and executives. The decision to disband their AI safety division has raised eyebrows, as has the scrutiny over the severity of their employee non-disparagement agreements. The data used to train their new AI video product, Sora, is also under scrutiny. These missteps threaten the company's reputation, but they are savvy enough to navigate them.
However, one that might cause irreparable harm to Altman's image is his mishandling of their latest voice assistant tied to their new model, the astonishingly poorly named Chat GPT-4o. Chat GPT was already a clunky name for a piece of software. Adding numbers and letters to the end doesn't help.
OpenAI attempted to dominate the news cycle by timing the announcement the day before Google's annual I/O developer conference, hoping to overshadow Google's new AI products. It worked, but not for the reason they hoped.
The signature feature of the new voice model was a voice assistant that was very lifelike and didn't have the usual delay that plagued most older models. The demo showcased a very flirty voice, which they named Sky, advising a guy on what to wear to an interview and giggling as he asked if he should wear a bucket hat.
The resemblance to the 2013 film Her, about a man falling for an AI assistant, was striking. Parts of the announcement video felt like a deleted scene from the film. The subtext of the announcement became actual text when, shortly after the event, Sam Altman sent a one-word tweet, "Her."
Scarlett Johansson, who voiced the AI in the movie, was also struck by the likeness. She sued OpenAI, saying they were profiting off her likeness. OpenAI responded to the lawsuit by saying, "Sky's voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice. To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents."
If Altman's tweet hadn't already called that statement into question, it certainly was when Johansson released a statement saying OpenAI had asked her to use her voice for the model. By Johansson's account, Sam Altman tried to convince her to lend her voice, saying it would "bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives," adding that her voice would be "comforting to people." She said Sam Altman called her to reconsider two days before the demo.
After Johansson’s reveal, Sam Altman relented, updating the press release to add, "Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky's voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn't communicate better." Altman conceded that he had indeed offered the role to Johansson, but insisted this was after Sky's voice actor had already been hired.
Such public blunders are uncharacteristic for Altman, who has meticulously crafted his public image, as evidenced by his polished 2023 Senate AI hearing testimony. His charm offensive was so effective that Senator John Kennedy asked if he would help craft AI safety legislation. He declined, saying, "I love my current job." That type of Midwest-born aw-shucks folksiness has helped Altman weather product safety and ethics concerns.
This time, Altman was caught in the lie, which resulted in OpenAI removing the signature feature showcased during its keynote. Other voices are still available, but they clearly wanted to use Sky's voice to introduce the new capability. It's not just a setback for OpenAI but also shows that Sam Altman is like most other tech CEOs; he's rapacious in his single-minded goal of winning.
The co-founder who left this week, Ilya Sutskever, tried to fire Sam Altman back in November, saying that Altman had not been "consistently candid in his communications." This might have been the week that proved he had a point.
Well written!
Clunky name for software, good description, and flirty voice named Sky is another!