Scarlett Johansson takes aim at companies using her likeness, voice in AI

Scarlett Johansson has continued to share her opinion on artificial intelligence — and she has some suggestions on how the technology should be regulated in the future.

During an interview with Vanity Fair, the actress spoke out about AI companies that have used her likeness and allegedly her voice in the past. She told the outlet that she is advocating for legislation to be made around evolving technology.

"There has to be some agreed-upon set of boundaries in order for [AI] to not be detrimental. I wish more people in the public eye would support and speak out about that — I don’t know why that’s not the case," Johansson said.

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This is not the first time Johansson has warned about the dangers of AI. 

In 2024, Johansson claimed 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 in March.

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."

The "Black Widow" star’s legal team sent OpenAI letters asking for an explanation about 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 News Digital 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 read.

Speaking with InStyle, Johansson said she’s become a reluctant voice in the AI conversation, but won’t back down either. 

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"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 I actually 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," she said.

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. 

Johansson’s attorney told Variety, "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."

Medical examiner details skull fractures in Karen Read murder trial testimony

A medical examiner testified she could identify John O'Keefe's cause of death as a head injury and hypothermia but could not determine whether it was homicide, accidental or any other manner Thursday during the murder trial of Karen Read in the 2022 death of her boyfriend, a 46-year-old Boston police officer.

Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, a forensic pathologist with Massachusetts' Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, performed the autopsy on O'Keefe Jan. 31, 2022.

While Scordi-Bello found that O'Keefe had died from head trauma and hypothermia, the manner of death — how he suffered those injuries — was undetermined.

The blunt impact to his head was the primary cause of death, she testified, but hypothermia contributed. He had a deep cut and bruising to the back of his head. Once she looked at it from the inside, she found multiple skull fractures and brain bleeding. And his body temperature when he arrived at the hospital was 80.1 degrees compared to a normal body temperature of 98.6.

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She discussed the external examination first, saying she found similar injuries to his face, head, hand, arm and knee that other witnesses, including paramedics and police, have already described to the jury.

He had "superficial" scrapes and cuts on his arm, which did not penetrate the skin or expose fat or muscle tissue, she testified. 

She also performed an internal examination and looked at additional injuries.

At the back of his skull, she found multiple fractures from a cut on the right side of his head.

That injury is consistent with falling backward and landing with his head on the frozen ground, she testified during cross-examination from defense attorney Robert Alessi, who asked Scordi-Bello if O'Keefe should have sustained a circular wound instead of the linear one found at autopsy.

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"There's nothing inconsistent with this injury and a fall on someone's — on the back of the head — with a blunt surface," she testified.

"A fall backwards where the person impacts the back of their head on flat, frozen ground … would you expect that type of a laceration from that type of a fall?" Alessi followed up. "Not just a general fall backwards, but specifically a fall backwards where the back of the head hits flat, frozen ground. Would you expect that?" 

"I could," Scordi-Bello said. "Yes."

However, she also said she found no signs of grass on the back of O'Keefe's head.

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Alessi also grilled her on the hypothermia finding, asking if internal injuries to O'Keefe's stomach and pancreas could have been caused by factors other than the freezing temperatures. 

She testified it is possible that his pancreas could have hemorrhaged from a device used to assist paramedics with CPR efforts, but that wouldn't have damaged his stomach. However, she later testified that the stomach ulcers could have been caused by O'Keefe drinking alcohol without taking his antacid medicine.

The toxicology report found no drugs or prescription medications in his system at the time of his death. He had a .21% blood alcohol level. And he had been prescribed an antacid to prevent gastric ulcers. 

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Even after an amended death certificate was issued, O'Keefe's manner of death remained undetermined. Scordi-Bello testified Thursday she stands by her findings as to the cause, head trauma and hypothermia.

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After Judge Beverly Cannone sent jurors home for the day, Alessi argued that new disclosures about expert testimony from Aperture, which conducted reports for the prosecution, would put the "entire defense" at risk if allowed this late in the game.

The disclosure was dated May 8 but was received by the defense May 11, he said.

"I don’t like to use hyperbolic words, but the word has been used against us — ambush, ambush, ambush," Alessi said. "If there’s ever an example of an ambush, this is it."

In a heated back and forth, Brennan described the disclosure as evidence of a significant variance between the internal clocks in Read’s Lexus SUV and John O’Keefe’s cellphone data.

Cannone did not announce a decision before adjourning court for the day.

Read is due back Friday at 9 a.m.

She could face life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge.

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