Comment by pseudosavant
2 years ago
Exactly. Lots of voices sound like other peoples’ voices. We aren’t that unique.
SJ doesn’t get to own the voice rights to everyone that sounds at all like her just because she is famous.
2 years ago
Exactly. Lots of voices sound like other peoples’ voices. We aren’t that unique.
SJ doesn’t get to own the voice rights to everyone that sounds at all like her just because she is famous.
It is not about the voice. Rather using the fame of known actress to boost the product. If your inner motive is to sound like her because she is well-known, differences in voice does not matter much.
The voice was called Sky and OpenAI wasn't using her likeness to promote the voice or product. She isn't that well known, I didn't even know she was in Her.
There's 1 billion English speakers, there are going to be voice overlaps.
The issue is that they contacted her and advertised based on her. They clearly wanted it to sound like her. Now, that it sounded like her, there is a reason to make conclusions about OpenAI's real motives.
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"She isn't that well known"
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/scarlett-johansson-tops-l...
> The voice was called Sky
That the voice is called Sky is actually part of what's suspicious about this to me. They had all the world of female names to choose from for the voice that would recreate "Her" (and there's plenty of evidence that suggests that the movie was used as inspiration), and they chose one that started with the same rare consonant cluster as this actress. The only other names that Wikipedia lists with that consonant cluster are Skyler and Scarlett [0]. If they truly were trying to separate themselves from her rather than subtly cue the likeness, why Sky?
> She isn't that well known, I didn't even know she was in Her.
She's the second-highest-grossing actor (and the highest-grossing actress) of all time [1]. You might not know her (and neither do I), but that says more about you and me than it does about her.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Englis...
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_act...
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Not that well known? She's one of the most famous actresses in the world! Seriously, go look at her Wikipedia page.
SCarlett AI. Sky. I know it's a reach but along with the Her tweet, you never know.
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What about the back and forth trying to hire her, and she refusing?
Sounds like: "Eh nevermind, we are going to use it anyway and BTW, I'm going to tweet 'HER' "
You don't think that will have no weight whatsoever in a lawsuit?
Not if they didn't actually use it, no.
We would not see these headlines, if they never asked her and never mentioned her. Then it would be just voice of some voice actress which might or might not sound like Scarlett.
But he DID tweet the ref to the movie, so that's settled.
So if I have a company that sells, say, manure, I can search and hire a voice actress that sounds exactly like Scarlett to promote me in radio ads? And write a tweet that vaguely implies that it's really her?
Yes to the first bit, no to the second.
I don't think a reasonable person would interpret Sam's tweet as claiming that Scarlett recorded the voice.
There's legal precedent against the first one. Tom Waits successfully sued Frito Lay after they used a Tom Waits soundalike in a commercial.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-09-me-238-st...
1 reply →
Exactly. I barely know who this actress is. To me, it sounds like the tens of thousands of other white american voices. How is the remotely too similar?