OpenAI is making moves toward monetizing things (you’ll be able to now buy products directly through ChatGPT, for instance). On October 3, its CEO, Sam Altman, wrote in a blog post that “we’re going to need to in some way become profitable for video generation,” but he didn’t get into specifics. One can imagine personalized ads and more in-app purchases.
Still, it’s concerning to assume the mountain of emissions might result if Sora becomes popular. Altman has accurately described the emissions burden of 1 query to ChatGPT as impossibly small. What he has not quantified is what that figure is for a 10-second video generated by Sora. It’s only a matter of time until AI and climate researchers start demanding it.
What number of lawsuits are coming?
Sora is awash in copyrighted and trademarked characters. It permits you to easily deepfake deceased celebrities. Its videos use copyrighted music.
Last week, the reported that OpenAI has sent letters to copyright holders notifying them that they’ll need to opt out of the Sora platform in the event that they don’t want their material included, which is how these items normally work. The law on how AI firms should handle copyrighted material is way from settled, and it’d be reasonable to expect lawsuits difficult this.
In last week’s blog post, Altman wrote that OpenAI is “hearing from a number of rightsholders” who want more control over how their characters are utilized in Sora. He says that the corporate plans to present those parties more “granular control” over their characters. Still, “there could also be some edge cases of generations that get through that shouldn’t,” he wrote.
But one other issue is the convenience with which you should utilize the cameos of real people. People can restrict who can use their cameo, but what limits will there be for what these cameos will be made to do in Sora videos?
This is seemingly already a problem OpenAI is being forced to reply to. The top of Sora, Bill Peebles, posted on October 5 that users can now restrict how their cameo will be used—stopping it from appearing in political videos or saying certain words, for instance. How well will this work? Is it only a matter of time until someone’s cameo is used for something nefarious, explicit, illegal, or at the very least creepy, sparking a lawsuit alleging that OpenAI is responsible?
Overall, we haven’t seen what full-scale Sora looks like yet (OpenAI remains to be doling out access to the app via invite codes). Once we do, I feel it’ll function a grim test: Can AI create videos so fine-tuned for infinite engagement that they’ll outcompete “real” videos for our attention? Ultimately, Sora isn’t just testing OpenAI’s technology—it’s testing us, and the way much of our reality we’re willing to trade for an infinite scroll of simulation.
