FIGHTING FOR WHAT’S HERS
It’s not the first time Johansson has taken on a company that has defied her. In 2021, she sued Walt Disney Co, alleging that the company had breached her Black Widow contract by releasing the action movie on its streaming platform while it still played in theatres.
Johansson, who was supposed to get a cut of ticket sales, argued that the move deprived her of potential earnings. She took legal action after the company basically ignored her, reportedly failing to respond to her initial offer or return calls and emails from her team.
Disney and Johansson settled, but not before the entertainment giant put out a statement saying that the suit was “especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects” of the pandemic.
Altman too tried to shame Johansson, telling her that hearing her voice would “help consumers feel comfortable” with AI. Both Disney and OpenAI ignored her and made the case that she should buck up and be a team player – it’s hard to imagine them giving the same treatment to one of Hollywood’s leading men (to say nothing of the companies’ own “for the greater good” bona fides).
Johansson now has a track record of fighting for what’s rightfully hers, and her willingness to do it so publicly and unapologetically is helping to check a powerful tech company in a way those with less money and agency cannot. It’s a move that puts Johansson in the same camp as Taylor Swift, who withheld her music from Apple and Spotify when she felt that their terms hurt artists, especially those who had not reached her level of stardom.
In trying to humanise its artificial intelligence, OpenAI made the mistake of dehumanising a woman by stealing her voice – and an even bigger error in crossing one who could actually do something about it.
Johansson is now reminding the company of what it looks like to deal with a powerful woman, not a deferential chatbot.
