Comment by supermatt
2 years ago
Even if the voice actor was sourced before they originally contacted SJ, it was clearly the intent to sound like her. There are so many other distinctive voices they could have chosen, but instead they decided to go as close as possible to "her" as they could. Many people thought it was SJ until she stated it wasn't. I appreciate the voice actor may sound like that naturally, but its hardly coincidental that the voice that sounds most like the voice from "her" was the one chosen for their promotion. It is clearly an attempt to pass-off.
>Even if the voice actor was sourced before they originally contacted SJ, it was clearly the intent to sound like her.
Her, being the voice SJ did for the movie, not SJ's conversational voice which is somewhat different.
If OpenAI were smart, they did it in a chinese wall manner and looked for someone whose voice sounded like the movie without involving SJ's voice in the discussion.
This is not a thing. They hired a voice actor, who spoke in her normal speaking voice. That voice is not SJ's intellectual property, no matter what it sounds like. Further, I don't know how you can say any intention here is "clear", especially given the track record on this particular story, which has been abysmal even after this story was published.
They could have taken auditions from 50 voice actors, come across this one, thought to themselves "Hey, this sounds just like the actress in 'Her', great, let's use them" and that would be fine. Laurence Fishburne does not own his "welcome to the desert of the real" intonation; other people have it too, and they can be hired to read in it.
Again: the Post has this voice actor reading in the normal voice. This wasn't an impersonator.
> I don't know how you can say any intention here is "clear"
You are suggesting that it is coincidence that they contacted SJ to provide her voice, they hired a voice actor that sounds like her, they contacted SJ again prior to launch, and then they chose that specific voice from their library of voices and tweeted the name of the movie that SJs voice is in as a part of the promo?
I haven't suggested what they have done is illegal, given that the fictional company that created the AI "her" is unlikely to be suing them, but it is CLEARLY what their intent was.
What part of "actor" in "voice actor" did you not understand? You don't hire an actor to play themselves generally. "SJ" was not playing herself in Her.
> They could have taken auditions from 50 voice actors, come across this one, thought to themselves "Hey, this sounds just like the actress in 'Her', great, let's use them" and that would be fine.
Except that is simply not true. If their intent was to sound like Her, and then they chose someone who sounds like Her, then they're in trouble.
That is false. Read the appellate decision for Midler v. Ford. Remember that's a case where the first court to hear it said "lol no".
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