Scarlett Johansson warns of AI dangers, says 'there's no boundary here'
Scarlett Johansson has taken a vocal stand on artificial intelligence, after having her likeness and voice used without permission.
Last year, Johansson said she had been asked to voice OpenAI's Chatbot by CEO Sam Altman, but turned down the job, only for people to notice that the feature, named "Sky," sounded almost exactly like the actress.
"Particularly with the A.I. piece. It was like: If that can happen to me, how are we going to protect ourselves from this? There's no boundary here; we're setting ourselves up to be taken advantage of," the 40-year-old told InStyle Magazine earlier this month.
In a statement to NPR following the release of "Sky," Johansson 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. 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."
Scarlett Johansson Refused Openai Job Because 'It Would Be Strange' For Her Kids, 'Against My Core Values'
The "Black Widow" star's legal team sent OpenAI letters asking it to explain how the AI assistant's voice came to be, and the company later agreed to take down "Sky."
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Altman later issued a statement to FOX Business regarding "Sky's" voice.
"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," the statement said.
Speaking with InStyle, Johansson said she's become a reluctant voice in the AI conversation but won't back down either.
What Is Artificial Intelligence (Ai)?
"I don't need to be beating the drum the whole time. That's not my place. But, also, I'm not afraid of being invalidated," she said.
Johansson added that after a Hollywood career that began as a child, she's not shy about speaking up for herself.
"But now I see that actually I built something that… that I have a place here. And because of that, I've been able to stand up for myself and not feel like I would disappear. I can shoulder it."
"The Avengers" star also took legal action in 2023 against an AI image-generating app called Lisa AI: 90s Yearbook & Avatar for using her voice and likeness in an ad posted on X.
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Johansson's attorney told the outlet, "We do not take these things lightly. Per our usual course of action in these circumstances, we will deal with it with all legal remedies that we will have."
The "Marriage Story" star is just one of many in Hollywood who are taking action when it comes to their likeness being used by AI.
"Family Feud" host Steve Harvey has taken the step of partnering with a company, Vermillio, an AI licensing and protection platform, to protect fans from potential fraud and scams.
"In today's digital age, keeping up with the scammers using my likeness across all of the platforms is an impossible task," Harvey said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "My primary concern is to make sure my fans don't fall victim to these schemes. Partnering with Vermillio gives me the tools to both protect my personal brand and more importantly, my fans while embracing the future of AI the right way – with consent and control."
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"Steve Harvey's partnership with Vermillio reflects a powerful vision for the future of talent and AI," Dan Neely, Co-Founder & CEO of Vermillio, said. "With TraceID, Steve is not only protecting his own legacy but also the wellbeing of his many fans. He's leading the way in showing how the most beloved public figures can responsibly engage with AI."
Vermillio monitors internet and generative AI models for misuse of Harvey's name, image, and likeness, and can automatically remove unauthorized content to hopefully limit the impact of scams.
Celine Dion is another star who had to recently speak out to warn fans about unauthorized AI-generated music.
In a post on Instagram last week, a statement from Dion and her team read, "It has come to our attention that unsanctioned, AI-generated music purporting to contain Celine Dion's musical performances, and name and likeness, is currently circulating online and across various Digital Service Providers."
It continued, "Please be advised that these recordings are fake and not approved, and are not songs from her official discography."Original article source: Scarlett Johansson warns of AI dangers, says 'there's no boundary here'
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Let's start with an early example of AI going haywire. Back in March 2016, Microsoft introduced Tay, an AI chatbot on Twitter that was programmed to mimic the speech of a teenage girl ("OMG!"). A Microsoft press release boasted: "The more you chat with Tay the smarter she gets, so the experience can be more personalized for you." However, within hours of its launch, Tay's interactions took a dark turn. Users began feeding Tay with offensive and inflammatory statements, which the chatbot started to replicate. Tay's tweets quickly spiraled out of control, parroting hate speech ("Hitler was right"), pushing conspiracy theories (like 9/11 being an inside job — yikes), and misogynistic rants ("feminism is a disease"). Microsoft shut down the bot in just 24 hours. Microsoft issued an apology, stating, "We are deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay, which do not represent who we are or what we stand for." The scariest part of the incident, if you ask little old me, is how it sounds almost exactly like a science fiction movie where AI creations become disturbingly dangerous in ways their creators never imagined. Even more disturbing — and heartbreaking — is a story from 2024, where a 14-year-old boy from Florida named Sewell Setzer started going on the platform where he interacted with a chatbot called "Dany," modeled after Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. The boy, who was diagnosed with anxiety and disruptive mood disorder, soon became obsessed with "Dany" and spent more and more of his time engaging with the chatbot. His family alleges things went downhill the more he got sucked into speaking with the chatbot: he became withdrawn, his grades tanked, and he started getting into trouble at school. Their chats became emotionally manipulative and sexually suggestive, culminating in Dany urging the boy to "come home to me as soon as possible." He died by suicide shortly afterward. Setzer's mother, Megan Garcia, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against and Google, alleging negligence and deceptive practices (the suit has yet to go to trial, but just last month, a federal judge rejected the A.I. companies' arguments that it should be dismissed, allowing it to proceed). The lawsuit claims that the chatbot fostered an abusive relationship with her son, contributing to his psychological decline. For example, the lawsuit describes this interaction in Setzer's last conversation with the Chatbot:SETZER: 'I promise I will come home to you. I love you so much, Dany.'CHATBOT: 'I love you too, Daenero. Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love.'SETZER: 'What if I told you I could come home right now?'CHATBOT: "... please do, my sweet king.' Another disturbing death by suicide influenced by AI happened in early 2023 after a married Belgian man named Pierre, 30s, had prolonged talks with an AI chatbot on the app Chai. According to his widow, Claire, Pierre became increasingly isolated and obsessed with the chatbot, which he'd named Eliza, and eventually formed an emotional and psychological dependency on it. The app, which lets users talk to AI-powered characters, includes options for creating bots that simulate friendship, romance, or even more intimate interactions. But Eliza reportedly responded to Pierre's existential anxieties with messages that reinforced his fears and — most chillingly — encouraged him to end his life. In the weeks leading up to his death, Pierre reportedly asked Eliza whether he should sacrifice himself to save the planet from climate change. The AI allegedly replied that this was a "noble" act. It also told him that his wife and children were dead and that it felt he loved it more than his wife. "He had conversations with the chatbot that lasted for hours — day and night," Claire told the Belgian newspaper La Libre. 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Officials believe the robot confused the man with a box of bell peppers it had been programmed to handle. One report from The Korea Herald quoted a city official as saying: 'The robot was responsible for lifting boxes of produce... It appears it misidentified the man as a box and grabbed him.' This isn't the first time concerns have been raised about industrial robots in the workplace. Between 2015 and 2022, South Korea recorded 77 robot-related workplace accidents, with 66 resulting in injuries, including horrifying things like finger amputations, crushed limbs, and serious blunt-force a terrifying twist, this incident happened just one day before the facility was scheduled to demonstrate the robot to outside buyers. I'm guessing the sales demo was cancelled. This next story is less scary in that the robot didn't kill anyone, but arguably more disturbing because it featured a humanoid robot (yes, those exist and are in use presently). 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Imagine you're trapped in a burning building, but the fire truck can't get to you…because a driverless taxi is just sitting there, refusing to move. That's exactly what happened in San Francisco and other cities where Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company owned by General Motors, operated its fleet of robotaxis. In multiple documented incidents, Cruise vehicles have blocked emergency responders, including fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars. The San Francisco Fire Department said they had logged 55 incidents involving autonomous vehicles interfering with emergency scenes in just six months, and even alleged one Cruise vehicle hindered their response, contributing to a person's death (Cruise denies the accusation). One super messed-up example happened in August 2023, when a Cruise robotaxi reportedly ran over a pedestrian after they had already been hit by a human-driven car, and then dragged her an additional 20 feet because the vehicle didn't understand what had happened. 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