The legal and ethical issues regarding artificial intelligence (AI) that have been big concerns among the public are becoming more severe. Even industry insiders have acknowledged the seriousness of the situation.
Recently, controversy arose over OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, using the voice of Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson without her permission. The actress strongly protested this, saying “I was very shocked to know that ChatGPT voice was so similar to mine”.
As Scarlett Johansson strongly reacted to the issue through her lawyer, OpenAI decided to suspend their voice service.
Later, OpenAI introduced Sky, one of the five ChatGPT voice services. Since Sky’s voice sounds so similar to Scarlett Johansson’s voice, controversy emerged again as people believed that the AI company stole the actress’s voice again.
In her statement, the actress said, “In September last year, the CEO of OpenAI sent me an offer to do the voice for their upcoming GPT-4o but I refused it due to personal reasons”. She added, “When I heard the voice in the released video, I was so shocked and frustrated because it sounds so similar to my voice”. Foreign media reported the issue, saying OpenAI could be held legally responsible for this.
Recently, OpenAI disbanded Super Alignment team, a technology development team that was in charge of AI safety and control. As such, many people believe that the disbandment of the team and the departure of key members may have resulted in problems in OpenAI’s safety awareness and recent incidents.
As AI technology advances, videos of various singers singing one song are being produced and attracting a lot of views on YouTube. In Korea, someone used AI to create a video of IU singing to BIBI’s hit song “Bam Yang Gang”, sparking controversy. IU and Park Myung-soo’s “Bam Yang Gang” versions have garnered hundreds of thousands of views. The celebrities themselves did not perform these videos but people let AI learn the voices of celebrities to make it.
This issue became serious when celebrities confessed discomfort about it. After listening to an AI song, singer Jang Yoon-jung said, “This is serious. I got goosebumps”, adding “I used to think AI can never sing, but if it’s like this, is there any reasons for singers to work hard on recording songs?”.
Park Myung-soo also reacted to his AI version of “Bam Yang Gang”, saying “How can it sound so similar to my voice?”, adding “I’ve never sung that song. I didn’t know it would sound that similar. I’m worried about our celebrities, what should they do now?”.
As AI voices have developed to the point that they are so similar to human voices, concerns over safety, including legal and social issues, are growing.