Comment by HarHarVeryFunny
2 years ago
Sure, no-one is disputing that, and despite this Altman then contacts SJ again two days before release asking her to reconsider, then tweets "her" to remind the public what he was shooting for. The goal could have just been ChatGPT with a voice interface, but instead Altman himself is saying the the goal was specifically to copy "her".
He's not necessarily saying that was the goal from the start. All he is admitting with that tweet is that it is indeed (he finds it to be) reminiscent of "Her".
Well, from the start, Altman wanted SJ to do the voice. Perhaps he'd never seen or heard of the movie "her", and the association is just coincidental?
After "she" said no, then Altman auditions a bunch of voice talent and picks someone who sounds just like SJ. I guess that's just the kind of voice he likes.
So, Altman has forgotten about SJ, has 5 voice talents in the bag, and is good to go, right? But then, 2 days(!) before the release he calls SJ again, asking her to reconsider (getting nervous about what he's about to release, perhaps?).
But still, maybe we should give Altman the benefit of the doubt, and assume he wanted SJ so badly because he had a crush on her or something?
Then on release day, Altman tweets "her", and reveals a demo not of a sober AI assistant with a voice interface, but of a cringe-inducing AI girlfriend trying to be flirty and emotional. He could have picked any of the five voices for the demo, but you know ...
But as you say, he's not admitting anything. When he tweeted "her" maybe it was because he saw the movie for the first time the night before?
Sky has been in the app for many months, the release last week didn't add the voice, it merely is for a mode which allows a much more natural back and forth and interaction via voice, which is, indeed, fairly reminiscent of the voice interface in "her".
He probably just really wants to actually have SJ's voice from the film. But SJ doesn't really have a right to arbitrary west coast vocal fry female voices. Without the "disembodied voice of an AI" element, I don't think most people would note "Oh she sounds like SJ". In fact, that's what the voice actress herself has said -- she hadn't gotten compared to SJ before this.
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> After "she" said no, then Altman auditions a bunch of voice talent and picks someone who sounds just like SJ.
According to the article, the word After here is incorrect. It states the voice actor was hired months before the first contact with SJ. They might be lying, but when they hired the voice actor seems like it would be a verifiable fact that has contracts and other documentation.
And like others, not defending OpenAI, but that timeline does tend to break the narrative you put forth in this post.
The 2 days thing won’t fly. The omni model can probably produce any voice when led with a few seconds of audio. Meta developed a similar model a while back but didn’t open source it out of fear of deepfakes and there are commercial offerings like elevenlabs and open source ones like bark et al. So the last minute ask wasn’t nerves but a last ditch attempt to score a rebound for the launch.
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The voice, or the plot/concept of the movie? Her was a bout an AI having enough realism that someone could become emotionally attached to it. It was not a movie about Scarlett Johansson's voice. Any flirty female voice would be appropriator a "her" tweet.
Maybe, but that isn't what Altman did. He specifically tried to hire SJ. Twice.
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Exactly, just reminiscent of the movie. So the tweet really proves nothing in this case, unlike what some people seem to believe.
And if you commision an artist to draw a black-leather tight-fit clad red-head superspy in an ad for tour product, it need not look like Black Widow from the MCU.
But if it does look very much like her, it doesn't really matter whether you never intended to.
You can see plenty of discussion elsewhere in this thread regarding how similar the result actually ended up being.
All I'm saying in the comment you are replying to is that it's incorrect to claim that Altman's saying that "the goal was specifically to copy 'Her'".
Lots of people are disputing it.
Where has anyone disputed "that they hired the actor that did the voice months before they contacted SJ"? Links preferred please.
It’s actually just a few comments away, and visible for me from the parent to your comment
> Well, from the start, Altman wanted SJ to do the voice. Perhaps he'd never seen or heard of the movie "her", and the association is just coincidental? After "she" said no, then Altman auditions a bunch of voice talent and picks someone who sounds just like SJ.
I suppose some might imagine asserting the opposite as a distinct concept from disputing but there you have it. You should be able to find a link quite easily.
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