OpenAI is pausing the use of the popular Sky voice in ChatGPT over concerns it sounds too much like the "Her" actress Scarlett Johansson. From a report: The company says the voices in ChatGPT were from paid voice actors. A final five were selected from an initial pool of 400 and it's purely a coincidence the unnamed actress behind the Sky voice has a similar tone to Johansson. Voice is about to become more prominent for OpenAI as it begins to roll out a new GPT-4o model into ChatGPT. With it will come an entirely new conversational interface where users can talk in real-time to a natural-sounding and emotion-mimicking AI.

While the Sky voice and a version of ChatGPT Voice have been around for some time, the comparison to Johansson became more obvious due to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and many others, drawing the similarity between the new AI model and the movie "Her". In "Her," Scarlett Johansson voices an advanced AI operating system named Samantha, who develops a romantic relationship with a lonely writer played by Joaquin Phoenix. With its ability to mimic emotional responses, the parallels from GPT-4o were obvious.

Last night, Netflix's "The Power of the Dog" became the streamer's first-ever movie to take home a Golden Globe for best motion picture (drama). The movie also won for best director (Jane Campion) and best supporting actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee). As TechCrunch points out, "NBC announced in May 2021 it wouldn't broadcast the awards show this year after an investigation by The L.A. Times revealed the lack of diversity within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organization that hosts the annual event, as well as evidence of some members receiving gifts that amounted to bribes. [...] Instead, the event's winners were live-tweeted in an often bizarre fashion." From the report: In addition to being an overall quieter year as the HFPA tries to reform its organization following the controversies, the winning networks also aren't touting their victories as they would normally, despite some seeing some notable firsts and upsets. In prior years, HBO would be happily promoting its sweep over rivals. The network led the night with six wins, including four for HBO and two for HBO Max. Several of these were for its TV series "Succession," which won for best TV drama, TV drama actor (Jeremy Strong) and supporting actress (Sarah Snook.) HBO Max's comedy "Hacks" also notably beat out Emmy winner "Ted Lasso" (Apple TV+) as best comedy, and saw its lead, Jean Smart, win for best actress in a comedy. And Kate Winslet won best TV actress in a limited series for HBO's "Mare of Easttown."

Meanwhile, though Netflix led the year by nominations -- including for best dramatic film "The Power of the Dog" and drama series "Squid Game" -- it had said it wouldn't participate in the event until the HFPA institutes changes. That decision means it's also now not bragging about a couple of notable firsts that resulted from last night's awards. [...] In addition, Netflix's runaway hit TV series "Squid Game" received three nominations this year, leading to the first-ever win for South Korea, as South Korean actor O Yeong-su won for his role in the series, beating out "Succession's" Kieran Culkin (HBO) and "The Morning Show's" Billy Crudup (Apple TV+). Netflix also won for "tick, tick... BOOM!" when Andrew Garfield took the trophy for best actor in a motion picture (musical or comedy), though the tweet had forgotten to credit the project by name.

Apple TV+ took home one win last night, as "Ted Lasso's" Jason Sudeikis won best actor in a TV series (comedy). Hulu also got one Globe, as "Dopesick's" Michael Keaton won best actor in a TV limited series or motion picture made for television, while Amazon Prime Video's "The Underground Railroad" won the category. Amazon Prime Video's "Being the Ricardos" was highlighted with Nicole Kidman's win as best actress in a motion picture. In another milestone, the first trans actress to win a Golden Globe, FX's "Pose" star Michaela Jae Rodriguez, took home the trophy for best actress in a drama. 20th Century Studio/Disney's "West Side Story" won best picture (musical or comedy) and its stars, Rachel Zegler and Ariana DeBose, won best actress and supporting actress, respectively. Disney's "Encanto," which streamed on Disney+ just a month after hitting theaters, won best animated picture. Warner Bros.' "Dune" got the trophy for best score (Hans Zimmer), and Will Smith was named best actor in a motion picture (drama) for "King Richard." The best non-English language picture award went to the Japanese film "Drive My Car." You can view the full list of winners here.

The first dog in space. The first man and woman. Now Russia has clinched another spaceflight first before the United States: Beating Hollywood to orbit. From a report: A Russian actress, Yulia Sherepild, a director, Klim Shipenko, and their veteran Russian astronaut guide, Anton Shkaplerov, launched on a Russian rocket toward the International Space Station on Tuesday. Their mission is to shoot scenes for the first feature-length film in space. While cinematic sequences in space have long been portrayed on big screens using sound stages and advanced computer graphics, never before has a full-length movie been shot and directed in space.

Whether the film they shoot in orbit is remembered as a cinematic triumph, the mission highlights the busy efforts of governments as well as private entrepreneurs to expand access to space. Earth's orbit and beyond were once visited only by astronauts handpicked by government space agencies. But a growing number of visitors in the near future will be more like Ms. Sherepild and Mr. Shipenko, and less like the highly trained Mr. Shkaplerov and his fellow space explorers. A Soyuz rocket, the workhorse of Russia's space program, lifted off on time at 4:55 a.m. Eastern time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Before the launch on Tuesday, the MS-19 crew posed for photos and waved to family and fans in Baikonur. Mr. Shipenko, the director of the film which is named "The Challenge," held up a script as he waved to cameras.

Robotron23 writes "The BBC reports that a robot named Geminoid-F has made its acting debut (video) in Japan. The short play in which it appeared was a sellout with the Japanese public, who were curious to see the robot's performance. However an actress who co-starred pointed out that the lack of human presence made the droid difficult to act alongside."

Frequent Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton writes "A woman sued Yahoo because they wouldn't remove a page created by her ex-boyfriend pretending to be her and soliciting strangers for sex. What would be an effective system for large companies like Yahoo to handle 'impostor' complaints, without getting bogged down by phony complaints and unrelated disputes? This is a harder problem than it seems because of the several possible cases that have to be considered. One possible solution is given here." Read on for Bennett's analysis.

Spencerian writes "Roz Kaveney's From Alien to the Matrix is definitely a love-to-hate book for me, and probably for most fanboys who've forgotten more than the author knows about the meanings, philosophy, and humor found in many popular SF films of the last 35 years. If you love to argue and curse when you read something that's so way off base in interpretation or appears to lack any research in even the basic meanings that most Americans found in a SF film, then this is your book. But if you hate arguing with your non-fannish significant other on why you really liked a particular movie, save your money by not buying this book. Oh, and dump your boy/girlfriend, too." Read on for the rest of Spencerian's review.