Why did OpenAI comply with Johansson’s Cease and Desist letter and take the voice down? If they legit hired a different actress their response should have been “Go ahead and sue us”.
They may have taken it down while they did an internal investigation to make sure. Or, regardless of their prospects of winning it, they may have not wanted to endure the cost or bad publicity a lawsuit would bring them. Neither option seems crazy to me.
IANAL, but I suspect it was just to show that they complied with the request, so that if the law rules against them, they can minimize the damages. The less time that voice is available, the less of a case Johansson's have to try and extract money out of them.
Also, lawsuits are expensive and go on forever. I think sometimes is cheaper and easier to just roll your eyes and take the L, even if you're in the right (at least in the short term).
