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Comment by gnfargbl | Hacker News Reader

A fantastic read, but slightly different from the OpenAI debacle? It sounds like Frito-Lay got to air their commercial for the usual period. Yes, there was a small downside in that it cost them $2.5M (plus their own lawyer's fees), which I imagine was beyond their budget for Genuine 100% Certified Tom Waits, but they did at least achieve their aim.

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> That said, with all the publicity around this, maybe OpenAI at least partially achieved their aim?

I think they 1000% did, because despite all the fuss there is actually no resemblance between the Sky voice and Scarlett Johansson's. The Sky voice is in a different pitch, doesn't have the vocal fry, doesn't have the slightly nasal tone. Listen for yourself[1].

This was a marketing coup for both OpenAI and Johannson. OpenAI, because they're in no danger of a negative judgment, Johansson because she gets her name all the place in the press and drums up free publicity for her film.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1cx1np4/voice_...

> The Sky voice is in a different pitch, doesn't have the vocal fry, doesn't have the slightly nasal tone.

In the sample you linked to you're correct, but in this sample the vocal fry is present and in fact quite pronounced:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYi3Wr7v_g

I can't hear the nasal tone in either voice, but the video linked above sounds much closer to Johansson's than the sample the reddit poster chose. It's definitely not a home run, though.

Thanks for that video. I was really confused because I only watched those voice comparison videos that doesn’t sound much like her, but that OpenAI video made me go “wow, that’s definitely Scarlett Johansson”. I get how she’s upset.

> This was a marketing coup for both OpenAI and Johannson. OpenAI, because they're in no danger of a negative judgment, Johansson because she gets her name all the place in the press and drums up free publicity for her film.

Cynical.

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