Scarlett Johansson’s Deepfake Row with Sam Altman Lands Her TIME100 AI Cover 

Key Takeaways

• Scarlett Johansson has made Time’s annual list of the “100 Most Influential People in AI.”
• The achievement follows Johansson’s feud with OpenAI over claims the company made a ChatGPT voice to deliberately sound like her.
• Time’s choice to include Johansson in the list has been surrounded by controversy.

Scarlett Johansson has landed herself on Time’s annual list  of the “100 Most Influential People in AI,” appearing on the iconic cover alongside industry heavyweights like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and founder of the Quebec AI Institute, Yoshua Bengio.

The Hollywood superstar went to battle with OpenAI after it launched a chatbot with a voice she claims was deliberately made to sound like her own. 

Scarlett Johansson Beats Industry Heavyweights

Time’s choice to include Johansson in their list has been incredibly controversial, especially because xAI founder Elon Musk didn’t make the cut. 

As one of the most respected and long-standing publications globally, the magazine’s Most Influential People lists have garnered a reputation of respect, and being featured is seen as a major achievement.

This year, the magazine highlighted  the increased diversity of its entries, with over 91 new names compared to last year.

“Our purpose in creating the TIME100 AI is to put leaders like Pichai and Whittaker in dialogue and to open up their views to TIME’s readers. That is why we are excited to share with you the second edition of the TIME100 AI,“ the magazine stated.

Johansson vs OpenAI

When OpenAI debuted its new voice assistant in May, Johansson spoke out immediately. 

In a statement  to the BBC, Johansson said she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine.”

The actress, who famously played a close-to-sentient AI in the 2013 film “Her,” said she had declined an offer from CEO Sam Altman to voice the chatbot for “personal reasons.”

According to Johansson, Altman assured her that her voice would be comforting to people. 

“[Altman] told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI,“ Johansson wrote in the statement.  

Johansson also pointed to Altman’s launch-day post on X, a one-word post of “her,“ seemingly drawing a clear comparison to the name of her film.

OpenAI Denies Any Wrongdoing

OpenAI received widespread  criticism  following Sky’s voice and quickly announced that it would disable the new voice addition. 

Altman vehemently denied Johansson’s claims, stating that the company never intended to resemble hers and that Sky’s voice belonged to a different professional actress. 

“The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers,“ Altman said in a company blog post . “Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson.”

“We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better,” Altman added.

The Deepfake “Wormhole“ Is Getting Worse

In an interview with the New York Times , Johansson described deepfakes as a “dark wormhole that you can never get yourself out of.”

The actress said that technologies “move faster than our fragile human egos can process it“ and that AI technology is “coming like a thousand-foot wave.“

Johansson’s words speak to the fears of many who feel AI and deepfake technology are getting out of control.

Deepfakes, in particular, are becoming increasingly controversial in 2024 due to their growing sophistication and potential for misuse.

A recent Channel 4 News investigation  found that more than 250 British celebrities have been used in deepfake pornography. The investigation of the five most visited deepfake websites found that they received over 100 million views over three months.

About the Author

Kurt Robson

Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN with a diverse background across several prominent news outlets. Having transitioned into the world of technology journalism several years ago, Kurt has developed a keen fascination with all things AI. Kurt’s reporting blends a passion for innovation with a commitment to delivering insightful, accurate and engaging stories on the cutting edge of technology.

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