zlacker

>>mjcl+(OP)
Well, that statement lays out a damning timeline:

- OpenAI approached Scarlett last fall, and she refused.

- Two days before the GPT-4o launch, they contacted her agent and asked that she reconsider. (Two days! This means they already had everything they needed to ship the product with Scarlett’s cloned voice.)

- Not receiving a response, OpenAI demos the product anyway, with Sam tweeting “her” in reference to Scarlett’s film.

- When Scarlett’s counsel asked for an explanation of how the “Sky” voice was created, OpenAI yanked the voice from their product line.

Perhaps Sam’s next tweet should read “red-handed”.

>>anon37+t5
Given the timeline, I’m still baffled Sam Altman tweeted “her.” That just makes plausible deniability go away for a random shitpost.

>>minima+ji
I thought it was about functionality more than the specific voice.

>>prepen+1o
I suspect that'll be OpenAI's defense.

>>minima+gp
That is what discovery is for. If this would ever get to that phase.

Someone from OpenAi hired the agency who hired the voice talent (or talents) for the voice data. They sent them a brief explaining what they are looking for, followed by a metric ton of correspondence over samples and contracts and such.

If anywhere during those written communications anyone wrote “we are looking for a ScarlettJ imitator”, or words to that effect, that is not good for OpenAI. Similarly if they were selecting between options and someone wrote that one sample is more Johansson than an other. Or if anyone at any point asked if they should clear the rights to the voice with Johansson.

Those are the discovery findings which can sink such a defense.

>>krisof+4w
I recall the basics from my contracts law class that it’s not against the law to hire an impersonator as long as you don’t claim it’s the celebrity.

So it’s legal to hire someone who sounds like SJ. And likely legal to create a model that sounds like her. But there will likely need to be some disclaimer saying it’s not her voice.

I expect that OpenAI’s defense will be something like “We wanted SJ. She said no, so we made a voice that sounded like her but wasn’t her.” It will be interesting to see what happens.

>>prepen+Kx
Odd. This wouldn't typically be covered in contracts class since it's an intellectual property issue beyond the scope of a contracts class. Scarlet Johansen didn't have a contract with OpenAI after all.

What you recall also doesn't sound correct given right of publicity laws.

>>static+vo2
Tell it to my professor :) I guess I was lucky. And perhaps I was taught incorrectly or remember incorrectly.

But I experience lots of ads with impersonators so maybe they just aren’t sued enough.

Also, Jack Nicholson never stopped Christian Slater from acting, so there must be some room for impersonation.