Scarlett Johansson says Sam Altman could be a decent Marvel villain — maybe one with a 'robotic arm'

Johansson said she turned down Altman's offer to voice OpenAI's AI model in September. But the company released a model in May that sounded like her.

• Sam Altman may want to consider ringing up Marvel if the AI thing doesn't pan out.
• "Black Widow" star Scarlett Johansson said the OpenAI CEO could well make a decent Marvel villain.
• "Maybe with a robotic arm," Johansson quipped to The New York TImes' Maureen Dowd.

Actor Scarlett Johansson thinks OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would make a good Marvel villain.

"I guess he would — maybe with a robotic arm," the "Black Widow" star told The New York Times' Maureen Dowd in a story published Saturday.

Johansson made the quip after talking about her dispute with Altman and his company, OpenAI. The company released its latest GPT-4o model in May, which came with several voice options.

But the AI model soon drew the ire of Johansson after many social media users pointed out that one of its voices, "Sky," sounded just like the AI chatbot she voiced in Spike Jonze's 2013 film "Her."

"When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference," Johansson said in a statement on May 20.

In her statement, Johansson said she'd initially turned down Altman's offer to voice the AI model back in September. Altman, she said, approached her again in May, "two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released" on May 13.

"Before we could connect, the system was out there," she said.

On May 19, OpenAI said in a blog post that it pausing "Sky's" release.

"The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's, and it was never intended to resemble hers. We cast the voice actor behind Sky's voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson," Altman said in a statement the following day. "We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn't communicate better."

In her interview with Dowd, Johansson said that "it was surreal" when OpenAI released "Sky" to the world.

"I had actively avoided being a part of the conversation, which was what made it so disturbing," Johansson told The Times. "I was like, 'How did I get wrapped up in this?' It was crazy. I was so angry."

"I think technologies move faster than our fragile human egos can process it, and you see the effects all over, especially with young people. This technology is coming like a thousand-foot wave," she said.

Representatives for Altman and Johansson didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.