Meta has secured deals with several actors, including Kristen Bell, John Cena and Judi Dench, to use their voices for the Meta AI chatbot, Reuters reports. Users will be able to talk to the chatbot while listening to answers in the voice of their favorite celebrities. Other celebrities include Awkwafina and Keegan-Michael Key, a source told Reuters. Besides these five voices, the source also said that there are more generic voice options if users prefer them. All voices will be available this week in the US and other English-speaking regions, though the source didn't give any other specific locations.

I'm in Seoul for the International AI summit, the half-year follow-up to last year's Bletchley Park AI safety summit (the full sequel will be in Paris this autumn). While you read this, the first day of events will have just wrapped up – though, in keeping with the reduced fuss this time round, that was merely a "virtual" leaders' meeting. When the date was set for this summit – alarmingly late in the day for, say, a journalist with two preschool children for whom four days away from home is a juggling act – it was clear that there would be a lot to cover. The inaugural AI safety summit at Bletchley Park in the UK last year announced an international testing framework for AI models, after calls … for a six-month pause in development of powerful systems. There has been no pause. The Bletchley declaration, signed by UK, US, EU, China and others, hailed the "enormous global opportunities" from AI but also warned of its potential for causing "catastrophic" harm.

OpenAI removed a heavily promoted voice option from ChatGPT on Monday, following a widespread reaction to the flirtatious, feminine voice that sounded almost identical to Scarlett Johansson. The company used the voice, which it calls "Sky", during its widely publicized event last week debuting the capabilities of the new ChatGPT-4o artificial intelligence model. Researchers talked with the AI assistant to show off Sky's personable and responsive affectations, which users and members of the media immediately compared to Johansson's AI companion character in the 2013 Spike Jonze film Her. Even OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, seemed to suggest that the vocal design was intentionally mimicking Johansson's character, posting a one-word tweet after the presentation that simply said "her". Less than a week later, OpenAI felt compelled to explicitly clarify that Sky was not based on Johansson.

Amazon has revealed a huge change that will make interacting with its smart speakers a lot less fun. The tech giant is retiring all three celebrity voices for its smart speakers – Samuel L. Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal and Melissa McCarthy. Amazon offered the superstar voices for $4.99 each as an alternative to Alexa, but these are no longer available for purchase on its website. Amazon, which released its fifth generation Echo Dot smart speaker last year, said customers can contact them for a refund. The feature was for US users only, although the tech giant does offer alternative voices for its smart assistant in the UK, such as Santa Claus.

If you've been saving up to integrate Shaq's voice into your Alexa devices, you've officially blown it. Amazon is ditching all of its Alexa-enabled celebrity voices, including Shaquille O'Neal, Melissa McCarthy and, say it ain't so, Samuel L. Jackson. The distinct voice options will no longer be available for purchase and will no longer function even if you made a purchase a while back, as reported by The Verge. That brings us to the topic of refunds, and it looks like there won't be any. This isn't earth-shattering news, as the voice options launched for just $1 before moving up to $5 in recent months.

If you've been saving up to integrate Shaq's voice into your Alexa devices, you've officially blown it. Amazon is ditching all of its Alexa-enabled celebrity voices, including Shaquille O'Neal, Melissa McCarthy and, say it ain't so, Samuel L. Jackson. The distinct voice options will no longer be available for purchase and will no longer function even if you made a purchase a while back, as reported by The Verge. That brings us to the topic of refunds, and it looks like there won't be any. This isn't earth-shattering news, as the voice options launched for just $1 before moving up to $5 in recent months.

Apple's iOS 15.4 will bring more than AirTag anti-stalking messages and direct iPhone contactless payments. Axios has confirmed the latest iOS 15.4 beta includes a less gendered Siri voice option for English speakers. The voice, recorded by a member of the LGBTQ community, was meant to increase the diversity of Apple's assistant. This should give users more choices for a "voice that speaks to them," Apple said in a statement. It's not certain if or when the voice will be available in other languages.

Sure, we may be living in the digital age, but not everything has to sound like it. And with Google's virtual assistant becoming more conversational with every update, you'll want to choose a voice you don't mind interacting with several times throughout the day, every day. Google has programmed eight different voice options in a variety of human-like pitches to give the virtual assistant life. These voices are different than the one you may have heard in real life or TV ads. They're a tad more realistic sounding than the default Google voice, making them a bit more pleasant to interact with because they're so refined.