Scarlett Johansson’s legal battles and \u2062reflections \u200bon \u200dAI: A deep dive into Hollywood’s evolving landscape<\/p>\n
Scarlett Johansson recently spoke to The New York Times, shedding light on her tumultuous legal battle with Disney \u200bover \u200dthe release \u200bof her Marvel\u200d movie “Black Widow.” The dispute\u2062 arose\u2064 when Disney decided to release “Black Widow” \u200bin theaters and on Disney+ Premier\u200b Access\u200c simultaneously amid the pandemic in July 2021. Johansson’s contract stipulated an exclusive theatrical release,\u200c prompting her to sue the studio for \u2063potential losses in\u2064 backend compensation.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t hold\u2064 a grudge,” Johansson \u200bsaid. “I \u2063think it \u2064was just poor judgment and poor leadership at that time. It just felt \u200cvery unprofessional to me, the \u2062entire\u200c ordeal. And honestly, I was\u2063 incredibly \u200cdisappointed, especially because I was holding out\u2064 hope until, my team \u2062was like, \u2018You have to act.\u2019”<\/p>\n
The legal battle intensified\u2062 when Disney disclosed Johansson’s $20 million salary for “Black Widow”\u2064 and criticized her for showing “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”<\/p>\n
Johansson previously told Variety\u200c that\u2063 she was “mostly sad” over the legal\u200d fight with Disney, adding: “It was such a surreal moment because we were all isolated and just sort of emerging a little\u2064 bit. I was also\u2064 really heavily pregnant, too, which in a weird way was amazing timing. Suddenly, your entire attention is drawn to this miracle of life. So, \u200dI had the most wonderful distraction in the world and soon after had a beautiful \u2063baby.”<\/p>\n
While Johansson doesn\u2019t hold a grudge against Disney, she might hold one against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.\u200d The two were at \u200cthe center of a\u2064 public dispute this May after OpenAI seemingly\u2062 mimicked Johansson for the voice of its \u200bChatGPT voice Sky in an ode to the actor\u2019s voice role in \u200cthe\u200c film \u200d”Her.” \u200bOpenAI pulled the voice\u2062 amid\u2063 backlash but maintained that\u2063 “Sky\u2019s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional \u200bactress\u200c using her own natural\u2064 speaking voice.”<\/p>\n
Johansson came out swinging in her own statement, revealing she was “shocked” and “angered” that\u200d OpenAI mimicked her voice when she originally turned down the company\u2019s offer\u2062 to be the\u200b voice of its \u200cChatGPT system. The actor confirmed \u2062her lawyers contacted OpenAI to have the voice of Sky pulled down.<\/p>\n
According to Johansson, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reached out to her in September 2023\u2062 about the company hiring her to provide the\u200b voice for ChatGPT 4.0. She \u200bdeclined\u2064 for “personal reasons,” but Altman allegedly contacted her agent and “asked me to \u2064reconsider. Before\u200d we could connect, the system was out there.”<\/p>\n
Speaking to The New York Times, Johansson\u200b said she had “actively \u2062avoided \u200bbeing a part of the\u2063 [AI] conversation, which was what made it so disturbing. I \u2062was like,\u2063 \u2018How did I get wrapped up \u2064in \u2063this?\u2019 It was crazy. I was \u200bso angry.”<\/p>\n
When\u200d asked if Altman would make \u2063a good\u200c Marvel villain,\u2064 the \u2063actor responded: “I guess he \u200dwould \u2013 maybe \u200cwith a robotic\u200b arm.”<\/p>\n
“I felt I did not \u2063want to be at the forefront of\u2064 that,” Johansson said\u200d about turning down \u2064OpenAI\u2019s original request. “I just felt it went against my core values.\u2063 I don\u2019t \u2064like to kiss and tell. He came to me with this and I didn\u2019t\u2064 tell anybody\u2064 except my husband.”<\/p>\n
“I also felt\u2062 for my children \u200bit would be strange. I try to be mindful of them,” Johansson added.<\/p>\n
The actor went on to call the current state of AI-generated deepfakes and duplicates a “dark wormhole you can\u200c never climb your\u200d way out of,” adding:\u200d “Once you \u200ctry to take something down in \u2063one area, it pops up\u200d somewhere else. There are other countries that have different legislation and\u200d rules. If your ex-partner is putting out revenge, deepfake porn, your whole life can\u2064 be completely ruined.”<\/p>\n
“I think technologies move faster than our fragile human egos can process it,” she concluded,\u200d “and you see\u2062 the effects \u2062all over, especially with young \u2063people. This technology is coming like a thousand-foot wave.”<\/p>\n
Johansson has been making the \u2063press rounds in support of her romantic-comedy \u200d”Fly Me to the Moon” (https:\/\/trailers.movieetv.com\/search\/fly-me-to-the-moon<\/a>),\u200b which is now playing in theaters. She\u2019s currently in production in Thailand on \u2063the next “Jurassic World” movie \u2062(https:\/\/trailers.movieetv.com\/search\/jurassic-world<\/a>).<\/p>\n As we \u200dreflect\u200b on Johansson’s experiences, it becomes clear that the intersection of technology and entertainment is\u2064 fraught with \u2064challenges and ethical dilemmas. The rapid advancement\u2064 of AI \u200cand\u2062 its implications for privacy and identity \u200bare \u200cissues that will\u2063 continue to shape the \u2062industry and our society. Johansson’s candid reflections offer a glimpse into the personal and\u200b professional complexities faced \u200bby those at the forefront of\u2062 these changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Scarlett Johansson holds no grudge against Disney after their “Black Widow” legal battle, calling it “poor judgment.” However, she’s furious with OpenAI for mimicking her voice without consent. Johansson declined their offer, citing personal values and concerns over AI’s impact<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}