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It's not a clone. What is ethically murky about it? You want Brad Pitt for your movie. He says no. You hire Benicio Del Toro because of the physical resemblenc

by flexie 2y ago

It's not a clone. What is ethically murky about it? You want Brad Pitt for your movie. He says no. You hire Benicio Del Toro because of the physical resemblence. Big deal. Having seen "Her" and many other Scarlet Johansson movies, I didn't think for a second that GPT-4o sounded like her. On the contrary, I wondered why they had chosen the voice of a middle aged woman, and whether that was about being woke. It wasn't until social media went hysterical, I realized that the voices were sort of similar.

column 2y ago
If it's a sequel and Brad Pitt was in the first movie and you use trickery to make people think he's in the second movie, there's a case. See Crispin Glover, the dad from Back to the future, which was NOT the upside-down dad in BTTF2. They settled for 760k USD.
- rowanG077 2y ago
  Openai never claimed it was Scarlett Johansson though. They didn't trick anyone.
  - kombookcha 2y ago
    Sam tweeting "Her" is a clear as daylight indication that they are deliberately trying to associate the voice with ScarJo's performance. They're squarely in the zone with knockoff products deliberately aping the branding of the real thing. "Dr Peppy isn't a trick to piggyback on Dr Pepper, it's a legally distinct brand!" might give you enough of a fig leaf in court with a good lawyer, but it's very obvious what kind of company you're running to anybody paying attention.
    - z7 2y ago
      Or he tweeted 'her' to compare his product with the movie AI's conversational abilities. It just depends on how one subjectively interprets a single syllable.
      - throwaway115 2y ago
        There are many many many movies with conversational AIs. Why that one?
        sebzim4500 2y ago
        'Her' is clearly the most similar to that demo, even ignoring the fact that they have slightly similar voices. Of the films I've seen anyway.
      - kombookcha 2y ago
        That would be a rather weird and boneheaded thing to do, when you've already twice approached said AI's voice actor and been rejected. There are any number of human-sounding movie AI's, but apparently only one whose actor has specifically and repeatedly rejected this association. Does he keep getting into ethical hot water because he's a reckless fool, or because he doesn't really care about ethics at all, despite all the theatre?
        MengerSponge 2y ago
        ¿Por qué no los dos?
  - popalchemist 2y ago
    Spielberg & co never claimed Glover was in BTTF 2. The replacement actor is credited. However they heavily implied that Glover came back, by approximating his appearance with prosthetics, preventing his face from being seen up close, and having the replacement actor mimic Glover's voice. Glover sued and won.
    - egeozcan 2y ago
      > they heavily implied that Glover came back, by approximating his appearance with prosthetics, preventing his face from being seen up close, and having the replacement actor mimic Glover's voice Do you think OpenAI did something similar here? In your case there is some expectation from the first movie, OpenAI doesn't have something similar. I'm really for people getting credit for their work/assets and I would be on the individual's side against the bigtech, but I think this case OpenAI and SJ have at hand already is on the path to set a wrong precedent, regardless of if any and which of them wins.
      - lupire 2y ago
        The movie "Her", which Sam Altman claimed ChatGPT was in some sense connected to, came first.
        rowanG077 2y ago
        But there is a connection to it. It's about an AI assistant which is what openAI is releasing. Disregarding Scarlett Johansson completely and it makes total sense Sam Altman made that tweet.
  - CRConrad 2y ago
    Not explicitly, no. They just heavily implied it. Typical sleazy open AI / Sam Altman behaviour, AFAICS.
blitzar 2y ago
You then tweet out, "look its Brad Pitt in my movie".
- z7 2y ago
  They never claimed it was Scarlett Johansson's voice though.
  - magic123_ 2y ago
    If the objective is to absolutely always avoid reading between the lines, then yes you're correct.
  - johnbellone 2y ago
    In public, other than Sam’s tweet. Do you think nobody said anything like this in an email or Slack?
pjc50 2y ago
> I wondered why they had chosen the voice of a middle aged woman AIs and automated systems, real and fictional, traditionally use women more than men to voice them. Apparently there was some research among all-male bomber crews that this "stood out", the B-58 was issued with some recordings of Joan Elms (https://archive.org/details/b58alertaudio https://archive.org/details/b58alertaudio ) and this was widely copied. (obvious media exception: HAL)
zemo 2y ago
> I wondered why they had chosen the voice of a middle aged woman, and whether that was about being woke really weird line of reasoning. Siri, Alexa, Google Home… etc.

by flexie 2y ago

column 2y ago

If it's a sequel and Brad Pitt was in the first movie and you use trickery to make people think he's in the second movie, there's a case. See Crispin Glover, the dad from Back to the future, which was NOT the upside-down dad in BTTF2. They settled for 760k USD.

rowanG077 2y ago
Openai never claimed it was Scarlett Johansson though. They didn't trick anyone.
- kombookcha 2y ago
  Sam tweeting "Her" is a clear as daylight indication that they are deliberately trying to associate the voice with ScarJo's performance. They're squarely in the zone with knockoff products deliberately aping the branding of the real thing. "Dr Peppy isn't a trick to piggyback on Dr Pepper, it's a legally distinct brand!" might give you enough of a fig leaf in court with a good lawyer, but it's very obvious what kind of company you're running to anybody paying attention.
  - z7 2y ago
    Or he tweeted 'her' to compare his product with the movie AI's conversational abilities. It just depends on how one subjectively interprets a single syllable.
    - throwaway115 2y ago
      There are many many many movies with conversational AIs. Why that one?
      - sebzim4500 2y ago
        'Her' is clearly the most similar to that demo, even ignoring the fact that they have slightly similar voices. Of the films I've seen anyway.
    - kombookcha 2y ago
      That would be a rather weird and boneheaded thing to do, when you've already twice approached said AI's voice actor and been rejected. There are any number of human-sounding movie AI's, but apparently only one whose actor has specifically and repeatedly rejected this association. Does he keep getting into ethical hot water because he's a reckless fool, or because he doesn't really care about ethics at all, despite all the theatre?
      - MengerSponge 2y ago
        ¿Por qué no los dos?
- popalchemist 2y ago
  Spielberg & co never claimed Glover was in BTTF 2. The replacement actor is credited. However they heavily implied that Glover came back, by approximating his appearance with prosthetics, preventing his face from being seen up close, and having the replacement actor mimic Glover's voice. Glover sued and won.
  - egeozcan 2y ago
    > they heavily implied that Glover came back, by approximating his appearance with prosthetics, preventing his face from being seen up close, and having the replacement actor mimic Glover's voice Do you think OpenAI did something similar here? In your case there is some expectation from the first movie, OpenAI doesn't have something similar. I'm really for people getting credit for their work/assets and I would be on the individual's side against the bigtech, but I think this case OpenAI and SJ have at hand already is on the path to set a wrong precedent, regardless of if any and which of them wins.
    - lupire 2y ago
      The movie "Her", which Sam Altman claimed ChatGPT was in some sense connected to, came first.
      - rowanG077 2y ago
        But there is a connection to it. It's about an AI assistant which is what openAI is releasing. Disregarding Scarlett Johansson completely and it makes total sense Sam Altman made that tweet.
- CRConrad 2y ago
  Not explicitly, no. They just heavily implied it. Typical sleazy open AI / Sam Altman behaviour, AFAICS.

blitzar 2y ago

You then tweet out, "look its Brad Pitt in my movie".

z7 2y ago
They never claimed it was Scarlett Johansson's voice though.
- magic123_ 2y ago
  If the objective is to absolutely always avoid reading between the lines, then yes you're correct.
- johnbellone 2y ago
  In public, other than Sam’s tweet. Do you think nobody said anything like this in an email or Slack?

pjc50 2y ago

> I wondered why they had chosen the voice of a middle aged woman AIs and automated systems, real and fictional, traditionally use women more than men to voice them. Apparently there was some research among all-male bomber crews that this "stood out", the B-58 was issued with some recordings of Joan Elms (https://archive.org/details/b58alertaudio https://archive.org/details/b58alertaudio ) and this was widely copied. (obvious media exception: HAL)

zemo 2y ago

> I wondered why they had chosen the voice of a middle aged woman, and whether that was about being woke really weird line of reasoning. Siri, Alexa, Google Home… etc.