Scarlett Johansson hits out at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, agreeing he would make a good Marvel villain

If CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman fancies trying his luck on the big screen, there may be an opening for him...  

The head of the world leader in generative AI has made a formidable enemy out of Marvel’s Black Widow herself, Scarlett Johansson, who has suggested that Altman could have potential as a big bad.

Johansson recently spoke to The New York Times about technology and Altman, confirming that he could make a good Marvel villain, “maybe with a robotic arm.”

The quip comes against the backdrop of an ongoing feud between the two figures, centred around the alleged nonconsensual usage of her image and voice. 

In May, Altman’s company released its latest generative AI model called ChatGPT 4.0, which came with a setting named Sky. It so happens that Sky sounded very familiar to Johansson - “eerily similar” according to the actress.  

Altman posted "her" on X, which many saw as a reference to Johansson’s role as an AI operating system in the 2013 Spike Jonze movie, Her.

Johansson released a statement saying that she was “shocked” and “angered” that OpenAI mimicked her voice when she originally turned down the company’s offer to be the voice of its ChatGPT system. She added that Altman used a voice so close to her own that “friends and news outlets could not tell the difference.” 

According to Johansson, Altman reached out to her in September 2023 about the company hiring her to provide the voice for ChatGPT 4.0. She declined for “personal reasons,” but Altman allegedly contacted her agent and “asked me to reconsider”.  

“Before we could connect, the system was out there.” 

She confirmed her lawyers contacted OpenAI to have the voice of Sky pulled down.  

OpenAI ended up complying amid backlash but maintained that “Sky’s voice is not an