LONDON, England – Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson expressed her shock and anger after an artificial intelligence chatbot, Sky, closely imitated her voice. OpenAI, the company behind the chatbot, faced backlash when commentators noted the similarities between Sky’s tone and Johansson’s portrayal of Samantha in the 2013 film “Her.”

Johansson revealed that despite being approached by OpenAI to voice the chatbot, she declined the offer. The actress accused OpenAI and its founder, Sam Altman, of intentionally replicating her voice without her consent. She expressed disbelief at the striking resemblance between her voice and Sky’s, pointing to a tweet from Altman referencing the film “Her.”

According to Johansson, Altman initially approached her in September about voicing the chatbot to help bridge the gap between technology companies and creatives. Despite Altman’s belief that her voice would be comforting to users, Johansson ultimately rejected the offer for personal reasons.

The situation escalated when Altman contacted Johansson’s agent days before Sky’s release, urging her to reconsider. Feeling compelled to seek legal assistance, Johansson sent letters to OpenAI to clarify how her voice had been used without authorization.

OpenAI refuted Johansson’s claims, stating that Sky’s voice was not intended to resemble hers. The company explained that the voice actor behind Sky was cast before any contact with Johansson, out of respect for her they decided to pause using Sky’s voice.

Johansson’s legal actions come amid mounting challenges for OpenAI, including impending lawsuits from various parties. The New York Times and authors George R. R. Martin and John Grisham are among those planning to pursue claims against the corporation for alleged copyright infringement in training their AI models.