ohMonday, May 13th
OpenAI Live Streams Event
Launch a flashy new product –
Large-scale language models
Dubbed GPT-4o by LL.M., the system is claimed by the company’s Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati to be more user-friendly and faster than the boring old ChatGPT. It is also more versatile and multi-modal (a technical term meaning it can interact with voice, text and images). The main features of the new model are said to be the ability to interrupt mid-conversation, very low latency (delay in response) and sensitivity to user emotions.
Viewers were then treated to the usual toe-curling spectacle of “Mark and Barret,” two tech bros who popped out of the central cast and interacted with the machine. First, Mark confessed he was nervous, and the machine helped him with breathing exercises to calm him down. Then Barret wrote a simple equation on paper, and the machine showed him how to solve the value of X. Then Barret showed the machine some computer code, and it was able to process it.
So far, so expected. But there was something oddly familiar about the robot’s voice. It sounded like a sexy woman called “Skye,” whose conversational repertoire ranged from empathy, optimism, encouragement, and perhaps even a hint of flirtation. It sounded reminiscent of someone. But who?
After all, many viewers were reminded of the famous Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson, who provided the female voice in the 2013 film “Prisoner of Azkaban” directed by Spike Jonze. sheis about a man who falls in love with his computer’s operating system, and it’s apparently a favorite movie of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Declared
Speaking at a 2023 event in San Francisco, he said the film resonated with him more than other sci-fi movies about AI.
But it was Johansson herself who was most surprised by GPT-4o’s voice. In fact, Altman had approached her in September of last year, asking to be hired as the voice of the chatbot. “He told me,” she said in a statement, “that he felt that me voicing the system could help bridge the gap between tech companies and creators, and help consumers feel comfortable with big changes around humans and AI. He said my voice would make people feel at ease.”
She declined the offer, but after the demo was livestreamed, she continued to hear from “friends, family, and members of the public” how similar GPT-4o sounded to her. She was further upset when she saw Altman tweet the word “her” in X, which she interpreted as an insinuation that the similarity between the machine’s voice and her own was intentional.
Needless to say, OpenAI vehemently denied any wrongdoing: “Sky’s voice is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and we have never attempted to imitate her,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.
It said in a statement
The company said the voice was provided by Altman and that “we had cast a voice actor to voice Skye prior to contacting Ms. Johansson.”
Still, the statement continues: “Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have stopped using Sky’s voice in our products and we apologize to Ms. Johansson for not communicating better.” Ugh.
Of course, in some ways this is a storm in a champagne glass. OpenAI’s newfound respect for Johansson may have nothing to do with the fact that she has a famous, expensive lawyer. And it’s also possible that Altman wasn’t trying to poke fun at her when he tweeted “her.” Similarly, pigs may fly in a huddle.
But in the bigger picture, this little fuss is, as tech writer Charlie Warzel puts it:
Put it inside
Atlantic
sheds useful light on the dark heart of generative AI: a technology built on theft, rationalized
with a threefold legal stance on “fair use,” and justified by a worldview that the hypothetical “superintelligences” tech
companies are building are too big, too world-changing, and too important for mundane concerns like copyright and attribution.
Wurzel is right when she says that “Johansson’s scandal is only a reminder of AI’s manifest destiny philosophy.”
Whether we like it or not, this is happeningThe correct answer to that is, “Yes, but most people don’t.”
What I’m Reading
Liberal ideals
cute
New Statesman
profile
The story of the great political reformer Roy Jenkins, by Simon Jenkins (no relation).
Notes for notes
Technology expert Om Malik
An interesting interview
With people and blog websites.
Cybersecurity weaknesses
there is
Good reflective work
The Register explains how the British Library’s communications strategy had to change after a ransomware attack.
Source: www.theguardian.com
