How much is the OpenAI company valued at and how can Scarlett Johansson’s statements affect it?

ChatGPT has become part of the lives of many over the couple of years that it has been active. The online chatbot has completely revolutionised how people see technology, with many using the online platform from everything from school work to, ahem, journalism (no, ChatGPT did not write this).

Given the huge success of the platform, the valuation of OpenAI, ChatGPT’s creator and human overlord, has shot through the roof. However, recent controversy has caused ChatGPT to hit the headlines, with Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson reportedly “shocked and in disbelief” that one of the voices on the system - Sky - sounds “eerily similar”.

Will Scarlett Johansson’s statement affect ChatGPT?

OpenAI have responded to the comments from ‘Black Widow’, saying that they believe that “AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice—Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice. To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents.” The company announced on X (formerly Twitter) that it was pausing the use of Sky.

As for the valuation of the company, it remains to be seen what repercussions - if any - come from this controversy.

How much is OpenAI worth?

As of early 2024, OpenAI has been valued at around $80 billion after a tender offer was made by Thrive Capital, a huge increase on the valuation of the company last year which, according to Reuters, was around $29 billion after the venture-capital firms Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and K2 Global agreed to buy OpenAI shares in a tender offer.

AS USA actually asked ChatGPT for a response to this question, to which it said that robots are indeed going to take over the world.

OK, perhaps it said the following instead, concurring with our human-made research: “As of early 2024, OpenAI is valued at around $80 billion following a tender offer led by Thrive Capital. This marks a significant increase from its previous valuation of approximately $29 billion in early 2023. The new valuation positions OpenAI among the highest-valued tech startups globally, trailing only ByteDance and SpaceX (Cointelegraph) (Crunchbase News) (Forbes Australia). The valuation boost reflects growing investor confidence in OpenAI’s capabilities and its potential for future growth, driven by its popular AI products like ChatGPT and DALL-E (TechCrunch).” We’ll take their word for it.