Elon Musk compares Scarlett Johansson's dispute with OpenAI to "black mirror irl"
Elon Musk is not one to avoid commenting on the lives of others especially when it's a heated argument between two well-known figures - one being his main rival.
Actress Scarlett Johansson has had an ongoing feud with Sam Altman's ChatGPT about the company's new development, Sky.
Sky is ChatGPT's voice option, which reads responses aloud to users, a feature introduced in its new model.
In a statement, Johansson said Altman had approached her last September offering her a role to voice a ChatGPT voice for its new app, which she declined.
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Whilst OpenAI didn't disobey this, they did go ahead and use a voice almost indistinguishable from her own.
'Nine months later, my friends, family and the general public all noted how much the newest system named "Sky" sounded like me,' the 39-year-old actress said.
'When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference.'
In response to the backlash, Altman apologised and claimed that 'Sky' is not Johansson's voice but he could have 'communicated better.'
Responding to a tweet made by an X user about Johansson's statement, the Tesla CEO wrote: 'Black Mirror irl (again)'.
If you haven't watched the Netflix hit (you should), Black Mirror is a dystopian TV series that explores the dire consequences technology might have on our lives in the future.
Musk has had a long-standing rivalry with Altman since he left his position as a founding member of OpenAI in 2018.
Meanwhile, the upgraded AI chatbot drew comparisons to Johansson's role as an AI operating system in the 2013 movie Her.
Coincidentally, Altman even tweeted the word 'her' around the time that Sky was launched.
However, the OpenAI CEO confirmed that Sky's voice is a different professional actress but as such has 'paused using Sky's voice in our products' following Johansson's statement.
'The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky's voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson,' Altman said.
According to The Washington Post, Sky was one of five voices OpenAI introduced last fall.
The tech company stated that they had trained voices for the audio option of their advanced AI program and compensated voice actors with 'above top-of-market rates' for their contributed efforts.