one year on
OpenAI pulls ChatGPT voice after Scarlett Johansson says she was 'shocked, angered' by similarity to her own
The company pauses the 'Sky' voice used in GPT-4o demos after the actress says Sam Altman approached her twice to license her voice for the system and she declined the initial offer and later said Altman contacted her agent again two days before the demo.
OpenAI announced Monday that it is pausing the use of the ‘Sky’ voice in ChatGPT, one of the voices used by ChatGPT when OpenAI demoed its new GPT-4o model last week, after Scarlett Johansson released a statement saying the voice sounded ‘eerily similar’ to her own and that she had declined Sam Altman’s offer to voice the system.
In a statement, Johansson said Altman first approached her in September 2023 about voicing the system, telling her it could ‘bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives.’ She declined. Nine months later, after the GPT-4o demo went viral, she said friends and news outlets could not tell the difference between Sky and her voice. Altman contacted her agent again two days before the demo, she said, asking her to reconsider. Before she could respond, the system was live. Altman’s tweet of the single word ‘her’ followed the company’s event and drew attention because Johansson voiced a virtual assistant in the 2013 film Her.
OpenAI said in a blog post that Sky’s voice ‘is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice.’ The company declined to name the actress, citing privacy. Altman separately apologized for not communicating better. The episode has reignited debate about consent and likeness in the age of generative AI, with many in Hollywood and tech circles asking what protections exist when a company can produce a voice indistinguishable from a public figure’s without using their actual recordings.
Online, the conversation was split. Some users mocked the Sky voice as ‘overly flirtatious’ or called it a ‘male fantasy,’ while others focused on the timing of Altman’s outreach and his ‘her’ tweet. Johansson’s statement ended with a call for ‘appropriate legislation’ to protect individual rights. For now, Sky is silent.
The record
In a statement, she said she was 'shocked, angered and in disbelief' that Altman would pursue a voice so similar to hers after she declined his initial offer and later said he contacted her agent again two days before the demo. She said she hired legal counsel and OpenAI 'reluctantly agreed' to take down the Sky voice.
In a statement, Altman said the voice was not intended to resemble Johansson's and that the voice actor was cast before any outreach to Johansson. He apologized for not communicating better. Previously, on May 13, he tweeted the word 'her'.
One year later — open only if you can handle spoilers
The incident became a touchstone in AI consent debates, cited by actors and lawmakers pushing for voice and likeness protections. OpenAI later released more detailed information about the voice actor selection process, but the controversy contributed to ongoing scrutiny of Altman's leadership style. No legislation directly addressing AI voice mimicry had passed at the federal level as of mid-2026.