Scarlett Johansson's AI row has echoes of Silicon Valley's bad old days

“Move fast and break things” is a motto that continues to haunt the tech sector, some 20 years after it was coined by a young Mark Zuckerberg.

Those five words came to symbolise Silicon Valley at its worst - a combination of ruthless ambition and a rather breathtaking arrogance - profit-driven innovation without fear of consequence. I was reminded of that phrase this week when the actor Scarlett Johansson clashed with OpenAI. Ms Johansson claimed both she and her agent had declined for her to be the voice of its new product for ChatGPT - and then when it was unveiled it sounded just like her anyway. OpenAI denies that it was an intentional imitation.

It’s a classic illustration of exactly what the creative industries are so worried about - being mimicked and eventually replaced by artificial intelligence.

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There are echoes in all this of the macho Silicon Valley giants of old. Seeking forgiveness rather than permission as an unofficial business plan. The tech firms of 2024 are extremely keen to distance themselves from that reputation.