The world may appreciate Scarlett Johansson’s distinctive voice, but she doesn’t appreciate any perceived commodification of it outside of her own control. This week the actor accused the artificial intelligence company OpenAI of creating a virtual assistant voice that sounded “eerily similar” to her own. However, the Washington Post reported, another actress was hired to create the “Sky” voice, months before Open AI CEO Sam Altman allegedly contacted Johansson to license her voice—a request she refused.
Johansson’s warm, approachable huskiness is her voice’s USP, a state most of us can only achieve through the otherwise miserable ravages of a cold, hangover, or allergies. Even then the sexiness is temporary—and you’re usually feeling too lousy to revel in it, no matter if loved ones or friends make admiring noises about your new, sexy voice.
“When you get a swelling of vocal cords, the mass of the vocal cords increases, which slows done the vibration of the cords,” Hayley Born, MD, MS, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Columbia University, told The Daily Beast.
