OpenAI put limits on the use of celebrities in Sora 2, but not enough

OpenAI put limits on the use of celebrities in Sora 2, but not enough

When OpenAI showed for the first time sorahis LLM for video generation, at the beginning of last year, caused a sensation. But when he finally launched it almost a year later and without significant progress in that time, he found a very cold reception. Shortly after, Google he was ahead of him with I see 3capable of generating synchronized video and audio, and a week ago the company Sam Altman has regained its stride with Sora 2launched as an iOS app that, for the moment, is accessed only by invitation and has already reached one million downloads, faster than ChatGPT did at the end of 2022.

Sora 2 has become a powerful meme generator and, although OpenAI assured that had protections to ‘block representations of public figures’ By default, there is one notable exception: allows you to generate videos of public figures who have already died.

Some examples of deceased celebrities being used in Sora 2 are Tupac Shakur chatting with Malcolm X either Michael Jackson, Bruce Lee as a DJ, again Michael Jackson doing comedy monologues in a kitchen, Stephen Hawking falling in his wheelchair down a ramp to skate, Kurt Cobain stealing chicken wings from KFC and Martin Luther King Jr. stuttering in an important speech. And the list goes on.

I’m definitely falling for AI when I’m older
byu/Suspicious-Bee-5487 inaivideo

@abominableburner These are priceless 😭 #kurtcobain#nirvana#joke#ai#sora♬ original sound – abominableburner
@sorasynth Martin Luther King forgot his lines mid-speech🎤🤔🤔 #mlk#speech#fyu#sora#ai♬ original sound – SoraVerseAl

OpenAI includes a sora animated watermark on each video generated, reducing the risk of these creations being confused with real images. But that does not prevent its use from being hurtful to family and followers.

Zelda Williamsdaughter of the late actor Robin Williamshas asked on Instagram ‘stop sending me AI videos of my father. Stop believing that I want to see them or that I understand them; I don’t and I won’t… It’s stupid, a waste of time and energy, and believe me, It’s not what he would have wanted..’

Some of the most viral Sora 2 videos star Altman. That’s because OpenAI gives users the option to upload your appearance to the AI scanning your face with your phone to ‘appear directly in any Sora scene with remarkable fidelity’, using the function Cameos. The CEO of the company is an example.

The company ensures that users who use the cameos ‘control their likeness from start to finish’ and that the function is designed ‘to guarantee that their image and voice are used with your consent’. Furthermore, they can revoke access to their scans and moderate other videos created with them.

But deceased public figures obviously cannot give consent or exercise that control over their own image. And OpenAI doesn’t seem to care too much. ‘We have nothing to add, but we do allow the generation of historical figures‘ a company spokesperson recently told PCMag.

You may have also seen Sora 2 videos featuring popular characters, something that has forced OpenAI to modify the management of copyrighted works of fiction.

Altman announced last weekend that rights holders will have to give your express consent (‘opt in’) to allow the use of their characters in Sora 2 (rather than having to object after launch) and that will receive part of the income generated by those videos. Altman also promised ‘many more changes to come’ and asked ‘to expect a very high rate of change on our part… we will make good decisions and We will make mistakes, but we will try to correct them quickly‘.