ChatGPT advanced voice mode now available, but you won't get Scarlett Johansson’s voice

Earlier this year, ChatGPT parent OpenAI was in the limelight for unveiling a new way to interact with the viral AI chatbot. ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode promised to make it possible to interact with the chatbot by talking, just like in the movie Her starring Scarlett Johansson. But this similarity was far too great as the voice called Sky was accused of stealing Johansson’s voice without her consent.

Now, ChatGPT’s new advanced voice mode is available for a couple of users. And it has improvements over its predecessor. Read on to know more about the new feature.

ChatGPT advanced voice mode now available

The advanced voice mode of ChatGPT is now available to a couple of users who are paying for the service, aka ChatGPT Plus subscribers. OpenAI has further said that the feature will gradually be available to all Plus users, by the fall of this year.

Unlike earlier versions of ChatGPT which converted spoken questions into text before responding, the new voice features use OpenAI's latest AI model to directly understand and process audio inputs. This means users can interact more smoothly and efficiently by speaking directly, without needing text conversion, as shown in an official Instagram video.

The new voice mode can also recognise and understand multiple speakers, pick up on emotional tones, and adjust responses to show a better grasp of feelings, making the interaction feel more human.

OpenAI says that ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode will offer four preset voices—Juniper, Breeze, Cove, and Ember—created with professional voice actors. The controversial Sky voice was removed in May after the controversy with Scarlett Johansson.

According to a report in The Verge, OpenAI spokesperson Lindsay McCallum says "ChatGPT cannot impersonate other people’s voices, both individuals and public figures, and will block outputs that differ from one of these preset voices.”

When Scarlett Johansson accused OpenAI of stealing her voice

In May 2024, Johansson had sued OpenAI for using her voice likeness without asking for permission. The actress had also revealed back then that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had approached her twice for allowing them to clone her voice for the AI chatbot. However, she had declined the offer.

OpenAI, on the other hand, had claimed that the voice in question belonged to other actors and not Johansson. Later that month, it was revealed that ChatGPT’s Sky voice is being taken down.

Altman also told NBC News during an interview that Sky was not based on Johansson's voice. He explained that a professional actor recorded the voice, but the actor's identity cannot be revealed for privacy reasons. "We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson. Out of respect for Ms. Johansson, we have paused using Sky’s voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better," Altman had said.