> Mitch Glazier, the chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, said that Johansson may have a strong case against OpenAI if she brings forth a lawsuit.
> He compared Johansson’s case to one brought by the singer Bette Midler against the Ford Motor Co. in the 1980s. Ford asked Midler to use her voice in ads. After she declined, Ford hired an impersonator. A U.S. appellate court ruled in Midler’s favor, indicating her voice was protected against unauthorized use.
> But Mark Humphrey, a partner and intellectual property lawyer at Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp, said any potential jury probably would have to assess whether Sky’s voice is identifiable as Johansson.
> Several factors go against OpenAI, he said, namely Altman’s tweet and his outreach to Johansson in September and May. “It just begs the question: It’s like, if you use a different person, there was no intent for it to sound like Scarlett Johansson. Why are you reaching out to her two days before?” he said. “That would have to be explained.”
* A.K.A. "Personality rights": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_rights
I think there's a pretty reasonable answer here in that the similarities to Her are quite obvious, and would be regardless of whose voice it was. If you wanted it to be SJ, reaching out right at the last minute seems rather odd, surely you'd reach out at the start?
There are three timelines that seem to be suggested here
* OAI want the voice to sound like SJ
* They don't ask her, they go and hire someone else specifically to sound like her
* They work on, train and release the voice
* OAI, too late to release a new voice as part of the demo, ask SJ if they can use her voice
This requires multiple people interviewed to be lying
Or
* OAI hire someone for a voice
* They train and release the voice
* People talking to a computer that reacts in this way is reminiscent of Her
* "We should get SJ as an actual voice, that would be huge" * Asks SJ
One third one, probably more middle of the road?
* OAI hire someone for a voice
* They train and release the voice
* People talking to a computer that reacts in this way is reminiscent of Her
* "Is this too similar to SJ? Should we ask them?"
* Asks SJ
> He compared Johansson’s case to one brought by the singer Bette Midler against the Ford Motor Co. in the 1980s. Ford asked Midler to use her voice in ads. After she declined, Ford hired an impersonator. A U.S. appellate court ruled in Midler’s favor, indicating her voice was protected against unauthorized use.
Sure, though worth noting that they hired a Bette Midler impersonator to sing a cover of a Better Midler song (edit - after asking and getting a "no")
To be honest, I'm not really that convinced it sounds like her