Recently, artificial intelligence OpenAI paid homage to the Hollywood movie “Her” (translated as “她” in mainland China and “觸不到的她” in Hong Kong) and featured a voice similar to American actress Scarlett Johansson. This has stirred up strong backlash in Hollywood against the technology of artificial intelligence.
According to a report by Reuters on Thursday (May 23), after failing to reach an agreement, Scarlett accused the creators of ChatGPT of plagiarizing her performance in the movie “Her” directed by Spike Jonze. This has once again triggered anxiety among the creative elite in the film and television industry about the threat posed by artificial intelligence, despite Hollywood film companies testing new AI tools and considering alliances with artificial intelligence.
An industry executive said, “It seems to have struck a chord with people.” “It’s a bit like a human face… A well-known tech company did something to people we know.”
In February of this year, OpenAI’s text-to-video tool Sora created a video similar in quality to a narrative segment, shocking the world. According to agents and industry executives, since then, Hollywood executives and agents have met with OpenAI personnel multiple times to discuss potential creative collaborations and technological applications.
Sources told Reuters that Scarlett criticized OpenAI, claiming that its latest version of ChatGPT used a voice “extremely similar” to her performance in a public demonstration. This has angered some executives in entertainment companies as they were discussing how to collaborate more closely on certain projects.
A studio executive stated, “This will definitely not establish a mutually respectful relationship between content creators and tech giants.” He believes that OpenAI’s actions are “arrogant.”
On Monday (May 20), OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement that the voice “is not Scarlett Johansson’s, nor was it ever intended to be similar to her voice.”
Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest investor, and after the dispute arose, Microsoft did not respond to requests for comments on the matter.
Previously, unnamed agents and executives expressed concerns that OpenAI’s models appeared to have been trained on copyrighted works. OpenAI believes this is fair use since these works are publicly available on the internet. However, some professional directors and filmmakers see this as a major obstacle as they are unwilling to use tools built on the foundation of others’ works without consent.
However, entertainment industry technology experts see Sora as a promising tool that can enhance the production process of films and television. They believe that the near-term applications of this technology can expedite the production speed of digital effects.
Fox Corporation has already utilized OpenAI’s ChatGPT to recommend new television shows and movies to viewers on its Tubi streaming service.
While OpenAI states its goal is to protect copyrights and prohibits the generation of videos starring well-known figures like Superman or celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, people still worry about its ability to safeguard lesser-known actors.
Scarlett’s conflict with OpenAI has opened a new front in the struggle between the Hollywood industry and leaders in artificial intelligence. John Yanchunis, a partner at the law firm Morgan & Morgan, said Scarlett has grounds to believe that OpenAI violated her Right of Publicity, which grants an individual control over the commercial use of their name, image, or likeness.
Singer Bette Midler, citing California law, reclaimed her Right of Publicity in a case that legal scholars consider groundbreaking. She successfully sued the Young & Rubicam advertising agency, owned by Ford, for hiring a former backup singer to mimic her singing “Do You Want to Dance?” in a Ford commercial after she had declined Ford’s invitation. The case reached the Supreme Court in 1987, which upheld her Right of Publicity.
In 1988, singer Tom Waits also won a similar lawsuit for an advertisement that imitated his gravelly voice.
Mark Lemley, director of Stanford Law School’s Program in Law, Science & Technology, stated, “In both cases, the songs the imitators sang were signature songs of the singers, so people were likely to think of the singers as endorsing the songs.”
Lemley said Scarlett’s case is not as clear-cut as the previous cases, but mimicking Scarlett’s voice in “Her,” Altman’s repeated attempts to hire her, and Altman mentioning the movie on Twitter are “fairly strong evidence for Scarlett.”
Jeffrey Bennett, general counsel for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which plays a crucial role in establishing Rights of Publicity in California and other parts of the U.S., has been urging the federal government to grant voice and image rights to individuals, similar to the protection of copyrights.
“We’re glad to start a major conversation on this issue now,” Bennett said. “We’ve been talking about the proliferation of ‘deep fakes,’ and now it’s starting to affect everyone. Now, this is truly a conversation. The federal government must have a solution.”