'People Have the Right to Protect Their Likeness': Hollywood Lawyer Says Scarlett Johansson's OpenAI Controversy Is Only the Beginning

May 31, 2024 10:57 PM - 5 months ago 54201

AI mightiness attract hundreds of millions of users and churn retired answers, images, and videos pinch conscionable a fewer words, but nan exertion isn't each roseate petals — it besides has a fewer ineligible thorns.

Scarlett Johansson recently hired ineligible counsel aft ChatGPT-maker OpenAI utilized a sound she called "eerily similar" to her ain successful its latest AI chatbot. Johansson said she turned down nan company's connection to sound nan aforesaid chatbot much than a twelvemonth earlier nan merchandise and stated that she was "shocked, angered and successful disbelief" erstwhile she heard OpenAI's nationalist demo.

After Johansson's ineligible counsel sent letters to OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, the company paused nan sound "out of respect for Ms. Johansson."

Related: Scarlett Johansson 'Shocked' That OpenAI Used a Voice 'So Eerily Similar' to Hers After Already Telling nan Company 'No'

But does Johansson person a case? Neil Elan, a business litigation lawyer who is now elder counsel astatine law firm Los Angeles-based Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP, told Entrepreneur that it would travel down to respective factors, including really akin nan sound is and immoderate if immoderate imaginable authorizations took place, moreover if conscionable implied.

"It would look for illustration location was nary authorization, but perchance location whitethorn beryllium a lawsuit of implied authorization," Elan said.

Elan, whose areas of expertise see copyright, trademark, and publicity cases, notes that we don't cognize nan back-and-forth connection betwixt nan parties.

"Ultimately it comes down to really akin is nan activity and what was nan process that went into it," Elan said of intelligence spot cases related to AI.

"If I can't plagiarize a celebrated reside and return in installments for it, AI can't either," he said.

How OpenAI created nan AI sound could besides thief find whether aliases not location is simply a ineligible case.

OpenAI has already stated that it utilized nan sound of different master sound actress, not of Johansson — but that mightiness not make a difference.

"Even if personification else's sound is used, nan output is simply a sound for illustration Scarlett Johansson's," Elan said. "Why does it sound truthful similar?"

Related: Emory University Funds, Suspends Student Over AI Tool: Lawsuit

Johansson's push against OpenAI isn't nan first ineligible action taken against nan company. Authors including Paul Tremblay and Sarah Silverman allege their books were portion of datasets utilized to train AI without their consent.

The New York Times sued OpenAI successful December complete copyright infringement and different news organizations for illustration The Intercept person followed suit.

More than 200 musicians signed a letter past period astir AI's "predatory" and "catastrophic" usage successful nan euphony industry. Over 15,000 authors signed a statement past twelvemonth asking large AI CEOs astatine OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and IBM to in installments and compensate writers earlier training AI pinch their work.

The mobility of wherever large AI firms get their training information has besides been astatine nan forefront of nan AI conversation, pinch an April report revealing that cutting-edge text-to-video AI models whitethorn person been trained connected YouTube videos without creators being alert of it.

Related: OpenAI Reportedly Used More Than a Million Hours of YouTube Videos to Train Its Latest AI Model

So does that mean non-famous creators are retired of luck regarding unauthorized usage of their sound aliases likeness? Not exactly, but nan commercialized image aliases sound of a non-celebrity personification doesn't person nan aforesaid worth arsenic that of a nationalist figure, Elan says.

While companies and businesses can't usage someone's sound without consent, location astir apt wouldn't beryllium a beardown lawsuit for monetary damages if unauthorized usage did happen.

"The monetary grant mightiness not warrant a lawsuit for illustration that," Elan said, adding that group still "have nan correct to protect their likeness."

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