OpenAI is now taking the video production scene by storm after breaking records with its text-based AI chatbot, ChatGPT. Positioned as an AI-powered TikTok competitor, the company’s new app, “Sora,” has achieved incredible success, surpassing one million downloads in less than five days, despite being invitation-only and available in a limited region. Sora President Bill Peebles emphasized that this speed is “even faster than ChatGPT,” demonstrating the platform’s immense popularity.
Sora offers users an endless stream of vertical videos similar to TikTok, but with a key difference: all of the content is generated by AI. Users can create original 10-second videos in seconds by typing a command into OpenAI’s advanced “Sora 2” model. The platform’s “Cameo” feature allows users to create videos using digital likenesses of themselves or others with permission, further expanding the potential for personalized content.
Sora’s rapid growth and initial crisis
However, Sora’s meteoric popularity has also brought with it serious controversy. The app’s weak protections have led to the rapid spread of videos featuring world-famous characters like Pikachu and even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman using unauthorized content. This has drawn significant criticism from the entertainment industry and raised serious questions about the data OpenAI uses to train its models.
OpenAI, which has become the focus of criticism, has quickly implemented new updates to Sora. Now, users have greater control over which videos their digital likenesses can be used in. CEO Sam Altman also announced that they will give copyright owners “the ability to determine how their characters can be used (including not being used at all). It’s a mystery why these controls weren’t in place from the start.
Although it remains unclear how many of the million downloads have actually translated into active users due to the invitation system, one thing is clear: OpenAI has begun to reap the first fruits of its ambitious investment in AI-generated video with record interest, despite all the controversy.
