On Tuesday this week, OpenAI’s Sora video generator was leaked to the public via the Hugging Face website. It was shut down after a few hours, but a group of artists then issued a statement critical of their treatment by OpenAI.
What is OpenAI Sora?
Back in March, we reported on OpenAI’s announcement of its Sora generative AI. OpenAI is the company behind the generative AI ChatGPT chatbot. The company said that Sora could generate videos up to a minute long based on a text description. In addition, the videos would be complex scenes with multiple characters and multiple shots in a sequence. At the time, OpenAI’s chief technology officer Mira Murati explained that Sora was available to a limited number of visual artists, designers, and filmmakers. However, Murati said that the technology would be available to everyone this year.
What was leaked?
Tuesday’s leak was not the launch Murati was hinting at. The @legit_rumors account on X posted that “OpenAI Sora has leaked” with a link to the Hugging Face AI development platform. Via a page on that website, you could generate a 10-second video up to 1080p resolution with a short text phrase. Word quickly spread and several X users posted videos they had created with OpenAI Sora. However, after three hours Open AI shut down access to Sora for all artists. As a result, the page on Hugging Face stopped working.
Art washing
The page on Hugging Face now has an open letter signed by the artists who created the leak. Headed “Dear Corporate Overlords” the letter was very critical of OpenAI and the way the company treated the artists who were testing Sora. It also stated, “We are being lured into ‘art washing’ to tell the world that Sora is a useful tool for artists”. In addition, the group behind the leak said, “Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback and experimental work for the program for a $150B valued company.” Artists weren’t allowed to share their work unless approved by OpenAI.
OpenAI’s response
In a statement to the website Tech Crunch, OpenAI said that Sora was still a “research preview”. The company also said, “Hundreds of artists in our alpha have shaped Sora’s development, helping prioritize new features and safeguards. Participation is voluntary, with no obligation to provide feedback or use the tool. We’ve been excited to offer these artists free access and will continue supporting them through grants, events, and other programs. We believe AI can be a powerful creative tool and are committed to making Sora both useful and safe.”
What we think
It’s a troubling time for OpenAI. The leak of access to Sora was embarrassing for the company. However, the unhappiness expressed by the artists who leaked it indicates a wider level of discontent with the way OpenAI has been collaborating. The development of Sora also seems to be progressing more slowly than was hoped earlier in the year. In addition, Tim Brooks, who was one of the co-leads on Sora, quit OpenAI and moved to Google last month. At the same time, OpenAI’s competitors, such as Runway and Stability, have been striding ahead, forging links with film studio Lionsgate and director James Cameron respectively. OpenAI must be hoping that 2025 brings the company better news.
