In a controversial move, OpenAI reportedly used a voice eerily similar to Scarlett Johansson’s for their ChatGPT AI, despite her explicit refusal to be a part of the project.

For those who have not been following the many movies the many tech giants have made in the world of AI, OpenAI made a series of announcements about their new AI model GPT-4o, and as part of this showcase, they debuted their new voice assistant named Sky. Much like the voice assistants from Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft, Sky could perform a number of tasks all with the power of your voice, but most interestingly, she sounded very similar to Scarlet Johansson.

As if that weren’t strange enough, a report has surfaced that the Sam Altman-led OpenAI actually approached actress Scarlet Johansson about using her voice for their ChatGPT AI bot prior to the release of the voice assistant. After the actress reconsidered and declined the offer, the company allegedly used a voice that was “eerily similar” to hers, leaving the actress “shocked” and “angry” at ChatGPT’s choice.

Johansson said that she was contacted by Sam Altman in September 2023 to ask her permission to use her voice for ChatGPT 4.0, which she declined. Then, in a statement to Variety, she explained, “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,” continuing with “Mr. Altman even insinuated that the similarity was intentional, tweeting a single word ‘her’ — a reference to the film in which I voiced a chat system, Samantha, who forms an intimate relationship with a human.”

That post can be seen below. It should also be noted that since Johansson filed her lawsuit, OpenAI has taken the voice assistant offline, and as of right now, there is no word on when it will be back for people to use.

OpenAI issued the following 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. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.”

This news comes out even as Elon Musk announced last March that he will be suing Open AI for allegedly abandoning the company’s founding mission. They’ve recently got into some hot water over copyright infringement with George R.R. Martin and the Writer’s Guild, so it remains to be seen what the company can do to ease the worries AI brings when it comes to properly paying creatives for their work. Fans can head to Variety to read Johansson’s full statement.