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Re:OpenAI and Scarlett Johansson's Voice by jagrsw on Thursday May 23, 2024 @06:03AM (#40452732)
There are approximately 4 billion women in the world. Given that I know a few people who sound very similar to me, I would say that there are (subjectively) perhaps 1,000 to 10,000 different types of women's voices in the world.

This would mean that a celebrity could possess a voice similar to 0.5 million to 5 million other women, and potentially claim royalties if their voice is used.

Re:OpenAI and Scarlett Johansson's Voice by numpad0 on Thursday May 23, 2024 @07:30AM (#40453367)
This types of estimate is sadly deeply flawed. Voices are affected not just by ethnicity but also language and culture. I know because I can feel slight noticeable differences in tones between communities just 30-50 miles apart, within same social classes and everything. Bilinguals also sound noticeably different to monolinguals even in their primary language.

I think people thinks others sound same not because they're similar from beginning, but because voices must homogenize under peer pressures. There's a proverb "nails that sticks out gets hammered". Most people probably has hammered flat voices intended to not stand out.

Re:OpenAI and Scarlett Johansson's Voice by marcus_holmes on Thursday May 23, 2024 @08:42PM (#40461654)
fine. So the entire casting process for this role picked a 1 in 10,000 match for Her. That's not coincidence