Scarlett Johansson turned down a major offer to lend her voice to an AI project, citing concerns about how it might affect her two children.
The actress, known for her roles in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Lost in Translation, explained that taking the job would have been uncomfortable for her kids and felt “strange.”
Johansson, who turns 40 this year, has a daughter, Rose Dorothy, nine, with her ex-husband Romain Dauriac, and a son, Cosmo, two, with her current husband, Colin Jost.
The job in question was to voice OpenAI’s chatbot. After declining the offer, she was pulled into a controversy that unsettled her.
Earlier this year, Johansson made headlines when she criticized OpenAI for launching a new chatbot named Sky, which had a voice eerily similar to hers.
She had previously turned down the role to provide her voice for the AI but found herself involved despite her refusal.
In an interview with The New York Times, Johansson explained, “I actively avoided being part of the [AI] conversation, which is why it was so disturbing.”
She recalled feeling frustrated and confused, asking herself, “How did I get wrapped up in this? It was crazy. I was so angry.”
The actress, who voiced the AI character Samantha in the 2013 film Her, shared that her decision to avoid the project was rooted in her values.
“I didn’t want to be at the forefront of that. It just went against my core beliefs,” she said. “I also thought it would be strange for my children.”
Johansson further expressed her concerns about deepfake technology, calling it a “dark wormhole you can never climb out of.” She warned that deepfakes can have serious consequences, especially when used maliciously.
“Once you try to take something down in one area, it pops up somewhere else,” she explained, referencing the challenges posed by global differences in legislation.
She highlighted deepfakes’ dangers, particularly for younger generations, saying, “Technologies are moving faster than our fragile human egos can process it, and you see the effects everywhere, especially with young people. This technology is coming like a thousand-foot wave.”
Johansson had previously expressed shock and frustration over Sky’s voice being so similar to hers. In response, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, clarified that Sky’s voice was not intended to resemble Johansson’s and was performed by an actor cast before she was approached for the role.
Altman apologized to Johansson in a statement to The Verge, saying, “The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson’s, and it was never intended to resemble hers. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We apologize for not communicating better with her.”
By staying true to her values and standing up for what she believes in, Johansson highlighted emerging AI technologies’ complexities and potential dangers.
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