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Jamaica's De Cordova-Reid joins Leicester from Fulham
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Wolves' Kilman reunites with Lopetegui at West Ham
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Schmidt reign off to winning start as Australia beat Wales 25-16
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Russian wrestlers reject Olympics invitation
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Raducanu rediscovers Wimbledon 'fun' factor after turbulent spell
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Winning all that matters at Euro 2024 for Mbappe's minimalist France
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Eight dead, two million affected by Bangladesh floods
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Robertson pleased to 'find a way' past England in tough Test baptism
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Martin sets lap record to secure German MotoGP pole
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'Shattered' Germany set sights on World Cup after Euros exit
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Olympic hope Pedersen pulls out of Tour de France
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Djokovic eyes sweet 16 at Wimbledon as Swiatek takes on 'gangster'
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End beckons again for Ronaldo after Portugal Euros KO
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New Zealand edge England 16-15 in tense, brutal first Test
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Turkey take on Dutch in politically charged Euros quarter-final, England face Swiss
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Calling for better ties with West, Iran reformist wins presidency
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Cybercrime groups restructuring after major takedowns: experts
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Activists hail Sierra Leone child marriage ban, urge action on FGM
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Marsch relishing Canada's semi clash with Argentina
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Canada stun Venezuela on penalties to reach Copa semis
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Iran reformist Pezeshkian holds early lead in runoff vote
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Swiatek faces 'gangster' threat, Djokovic feels need for Wimbledon speed
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France holds its breath ahead of uncertain vote
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Starmer begins UK 'rebuild' after landslide election win
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Paris's Moulin Rouge inaugurates new windmill sails ahead of Olympics
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Pan, Rai share halfway lead in PGA John Deere Classic
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'I was feeling terrible' in debate, Biden says in TV interview
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France coach Deschamps savours ending penalty hoodoo, defends Mbappe
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Thompson bids farewell to Warriors after exit
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Portugal exit Euros with pride, will return stronger: Martinez
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UK's new PM Starmer speaks to world leaders, names top team
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Spain and France to face off in Euros last four, Turkey lament 'unfair' Demiral ban
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Israel says negotiators to hold fresh Gaza truce talks next week
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France beat Portugal on penalties to reach Euro 2024 semi-finals
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Endrick to start for Brazil in Uruguay Copa clash: Dorival
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Heartbreak for Germany fans after dramatic Euros exit
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Beryl heads for Texas after causing damage, no deaths in Mexico
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Nagelsmann laments late penalty decision as hosts Germany exit Euros
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Biden declares he's all in ahead of high-risk TV interview
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Spain team 'is a winning horse', says De la Fuente
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Bows at the ready, Chad villagers battle kidnappings
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Alcaraz mimics Bellingham goal celebration after Wimbledon win
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Olmo hopes Pedri can make speedy return for Euros semi-finalists Spain
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Retiring Kroos hopeful despite Germany's 'bitter' Euros exit
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Southgate turns on English 'entitlement' over claims of easy Euros draw
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Merino extra-time goal sends Spain past Germany to Euro semis
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Koeman demands Dutch silence fervent Turkish fans at Euros
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Brad Pitt at Silverstone for filming of F1 movie
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Raducanu storms into Wimbledon last 16
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California fires spread in July 4 weekend heatwave
OpenAI apologizes to actress Johansson over AI voice similarity
OpenAI chief Sam Altman publicly apologized Tuesday to Scarlett Johansson after the movie star said she was "shocked" by a new synthetic voice released by the ChatGPT-maker that sounds "eerily similar" to her.
At issue is "Sky," one of several voices OpenAI unveiled last week with the release of its higher-performing and even more humanlike GPT-4o artificial intelligence technology.
In a demo, Sky was at times flirtatious and funny, capable of seamlessly jumping from one topic to the next, unlike most existing chatbots.
The technology -- and sound of the voice -- quickly drew similarities to the Johansson-voiced AI character in the 2013 film "Her."
Altman has previously pointed to the Spike Jonze-directed movie -- a cautionary tale about the future in which a man falls in love with an AI chatbot -- as inspiration for where he would like AI interactions to go.
He furthered speculation last week with a single-word post on X, formerly Twitter, saying "her."
Johansson on Monday expressed outrage at the new voice, saying in a statement she 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 couldn't tell the difference."
She said Altman had offered in September to hire her to work with OpenAI to create a synthetic voice, saying it might provide people comfort engaging with AI.
OpenAI said Monday on X that it was working to "pause" Sky, with a company blogpost explaining that "Sky's voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice."
In a statement shared Tuesday with AFP, Altman said the company "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."
- Risk team disbanded -
The company, in its blogpost, explained that it worked with professional voice actors on synthetic voices it named Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper and Sky.
It began working to cast the voice actors in early 2023, "carefully considering the unique personality of each voice and their appeal to global audiences."
Some of the characteristics sought were "a voice that feel timeless" and "an approachable voice that inspires trust," the company said.
The five final actors were flown to San Francisco to record in June and July, it said, with their voices launched into ChatGPT on September 25, 2023.
"To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents," OpenAI said.
"We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice."
So far in the AI frenzy, most tech giants have been reluctant to overly humanize chatbots.
Microsoft Vice President Yusuf Mehdi told AFP his company, which has a partnership with OpenAI, sought to make sure that AI was not "a he or a she," but rather a "unique entity."
"It should not be human. It shouldn't breathe. You should be able to...understand (it) is AI," he said.
Just days ago OpenAI said it disbanded a team devoted to mitigating the long-term dangers of artificial intelligence.
OpenAI began dissolving the so-called "superalignment" group weeks ago, integrating members into other projects and research.
Company co-founder Ilya Sutskever and superalignment team co-leader Jan Leike announced their departures from the San Francisco-based firm last week.
M.Gameiro--PC