OpenAI's Sora app lets users spin copyrighted media into AI-generated videos

OpenAI is releasing an AI video-generating app called Sora that lets people create and share AI videos that can be spun from copyrighted content and shared to social media-like streams.

Copyright owners, such as television and movie studios, must opt out of having their work appear in the video feed, company officials said, describing it as a continuation of its prior policy toward image generation.

The copyright policy is likely to ruffle feathers throughout Hollywood.

The ChatGPT-maker has been in talks with a variety of copyright holders in recent weeks to discuss the policy, company officials said. At least one major studio, Disney, has already opted out of having their material appear in the app, people familiar with the matter said.

Earlier this year, OpenAI pressed the Trump administration to declare that training AI models on copyrighted material fell under the "fair use" provision in copyright law.

"Applying the fair use doctrine to AI is not only a matter of American competitiveness — it’s a matter of national security," OpenAI argued in March.

Without this step, it said at the time, US AI companies would lose their edge over rivals in China.

OpenAI officials said it put measures in place to block people from creating videos of public figures or other users of the app without permission. Public figures and others’ likeness cannot be used until they upload their own AI-generated video and give their permission.

One such step is a "liveness check" where the app prompts a user to move their head in different directions and recite a random string of numbers. Users will be able to see drafts of videos that involve their likeness.

Videos in the Sora app can be up to 10 seconds long. OpenAI built a feature it calls Cameo that will let users create realistic-looking AI versions of themselves and insert themselves into AI-generated scenes.

"Our companies are in the business of competing for time and modifying consumer behavior," Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said in a research note, adding he saw Sora app as a direct competitor to longstanding social media and digital content platforms from Meta, Google, TikTok and others.

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