Siri Voice Susan Bennett Says ScarJo Right to Lawyer Up Against OpenAI

Susan Bennett — Apple’s original Siri voice — is giving a big shoutout to Scarlett Johansson for standing up against ChatGPT’s newest voice sounding way too much like hers.

Speaking to “The this publication Podcast” Thursday … Susan acknowledged how Scarlett’s fame is really shining a spotlight on the issue, which has been a problem for a while with loads of regular voice actors losing out on gigs every day because of this AI explosion.

Susan says even her own famous voice pops up in random places … and she relies on her pals to keep an ear out for her likeness so her agent can track down those companies and make sure she gets paid for it.

Susan’s got empathy for Scarlett over this whole ordeal and totally understands why she’s getting lawyers involved after OpenAI — the creator of ChatGPT — unveiled an AI voice sounding very similar to hers, after she’d already declined the company’s offer to be the actual voice of their product.

As we reported … OpenAI named the new voice “Sky” when it was unveiled in Dec — and a lot of folks thought it was a dead ringer for Scarlett’s AI character in the 2013 movie, “Her.”

SJ made it clear she never gave the company’s big shots, including CEO Sam Altman, the go-ahead when they approached her back in September about being the voice for the current ChatGPT 4.0 model.

In response, Altman insisted to this publication earlier this week the voice of Sky was never intended to resemble Scarlett’s … but out of respect for the actress, they’ve scrapped the voice altogether.