{"id":199437,"date":"2025-10-09T03:59:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T03:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/199437\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T03:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T03:59:17","slug":"openai-wasnt-expecting-soras-copyright-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/199437\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI wasn\u2019t expecting Sora\u2019s copyright drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

When OpenAI released its new AI-generated video app Sora<\/a> last week, it launched with an opt-out policy for copyright holders \u2014 media companies would need to expressly indicate they didn\u2019t want their AI-generated characters running rampant on the app. But after days<\/a> of Nazi SpongeBob, criminal Pikachu, and Sora-philosophizing Rick and Morty, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced<\/a> the company would reverse course and \u201clet rightsholders decide how to proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a question about why OpenAI changed its policy, Altman said that it came from speaking with stakeholders and suggested he hadn\u2019t expected the outcry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the theory of what it was going to feel like to people, and then actually seeing the thing, people had different responses,\u201d Altman said. \u201cIt felt more different to images than people expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The TikTok-like Sora app offers an endless scroll and the ability to create 10-second videos \u2014 with audio included \u2014 of virtually anything, including your own AI-generated self (dubbed a \u201ccameo\u201d) and anyone who\u2019s given consent for you to use their likeness. While it tries to restrict depictions of people who aren\u2019t on the app, its text prompts have proven more than capable of generating copyrighted characters.<\/p>\n

Altman said that many rightsholders are excited, but they want \u201ca lot more controls,\u201d adding that Sora \u201cgot very popular very quickly … We thought we could slow down the ramp; that didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously really care about rightsholders and about people,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to build these additional controls, but I think you will see a lot of major pieces of content be available with restrictions about what they can do and not do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the system\u2019s early adopters, Altman said he was surprised people would have \u201cin-between\u201d feelings about allowing people to make AI-generated videos using their likenesses on Sora. He said he expected people would either want to try making their cameo public or not, but not that there would be so much nuance, and so that\u2019s why the company recently introduced more restrictions. A lot of people have changed their minds about whether or not they\u2019d like their cameos to be public, Altman said, but that \u201cthey don\u2019t want their cameo to say offensive things or things that they find deeply problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Peebles, OpenAI\u2019s head of Sora, posted on X<\/a> Sunday that the team had \u201cheard from lots of folks who want to make their cameos available to everyone but retain control over how they\u2019re used,\u201d adding that now users can specify how their cameo is used via text instructions to Sora, such as \u201cdon\u2019t put me in videos that involve political commentary\u201d or \u201cdon\u2019t let me say this word.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rightsholders want \u2018a lot more controls\u2019 on Sora<\/p>\n

Peebles also said that the team is working on ways to make the Sora watermark on downloaded videos \u201cclearer and more visible.\u201d Many people have raised concerns about the misinformation crisis<\/a> that could naturally come from hyperrealistic AI-generated videos \u2014 especially when the watermark denoting them as AI-generated isn\u2019t very large and can be removed easily, according to video tutorials proliferating online.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also know people are already finding ways to remove it,\u201d Altman said of the watermark during the Q&A Monday.<\/p>\n

During Altman\u2019s keynote speech at DevDay, he said the company was immediately releasing a preview of Sora 2 in OpenAI\u2019s API<\/a>, allowing developers to access the same model that powers Sora 2 and create ultra-realistic AI-generated videos for their own purposes, ostensibly without any sort of watermark. During the Q&A with reporters, when asked about how the company would implement safeguards for Sora 2 in the API, Altman did not specifically answer the question.<\/p>\n

Altman said he was surprised by the amount of demand for generating videos solely for group chats \u2014 i.e., for sharing with just one other person or a handful of people, but not more widely than that. Although that\u2019s been popular, he said, \u201cit\u2019s not a great fit for how the current app works.\u201d<\/p>\n

He positioned the launch\u2019s speed bumps as learning opportunities. \u201cNot for much longer will we have the only good video model out there, and there\u2019s going to be a ton of videos with none of our safeguards, and that\u2019s fine, that\u2019s the way the world works,\u201d Altman said, adding, \u201cWe can use this window to get society to really understand, \u2018Hey, the playing field changed, we can generate almost indistinguishable video in some cases now, and you\u2019ve got to be ready for that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Altman said he feels that people don\u2019t pay attention to OpenAI\u2019s technology when people at the company talk about it, only when they release it. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to have \u2026 this sort of technological and societal co-evolution,\u201d Altman said. \u201cI believe that works, and I actually don\u2019t know anything else that works. There are clearly going to be challenges for society contending with this quality, and what will get much better, with the video generation. But the only way that we know of to help mitigate it is to get the world to experience it and figure out how that\u2019s going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are clearly going to be challenges for society contending with this quality\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a controversial take, especially for an AI CEO. For as long as AI has been around, it\u2019s been used in ways that disproportionately affect minorities and vulnerable populations \u2014 ranging from wrongful<\/a> arrests<\/a> to AI-generated<\/a> revenge porn<\/a>. OpenAI has some guardrails for Sora in place, but if history \u2014 and the last week \u2014 is any guide, people will find ways to get around them. Watermark removers are already proliferating online, with some people using \u201cmagic eraser\u201d-type tools and others coding their own ways to remove the watermark convincingly. For now, text prompts don\u2019t allow for generating a specific face without permission, but people have allegedly already gotten around that rule<\/a> to generate close-enough approximations of someone to instill fear or make threats, and to make suggestive videos, including videos of women holding dildo-like objects.<\/p>\n

When asked if OpenAI\u2019s plans translate to a \u201cmove fast and break things\u201d approach, Altman said, \u201cNot at all,\u201d adding that user criticism of Sora right now leans toward saying that the company is \u201cway too restrictive\u201d and \u201ccensorship.\u201d He said the company was starting the rollout conservatively and \u201cwill find ways to allow more over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Altman said turning a profit on Sora was \u201cnot in my top 10 concerns but \u2026 obviously someday we have to be very profitable, and we\u2019re confident and patient that we will get there.\u201d He said right now the company is in a phase of \u201cinvesting aggressively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the initial difficulties, Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, said he was struck by the adoption curve for Sora \u2014 and that it was even more intense than that of ChatGPT. It\u2019s stayed consistent at the top of the list for free apps in Apple\u2019s App Store. \u201cI think this points a little bit to the future \u2014 this thing we keep coming back to: We\u2019re going to need more compute,\u201d he said. \u201cTo some extent, that\u2019s the number-one lesson of the [Sora] launch so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was essentially a pitch for Stargate, OpenAI\u2019s joint venture with SoftBank and Oracle to bolster AI infrastructure in the US, starting with a $100 billion investment and adding up to $500 billion over four years. President Donald Trump has championed the venture, and OpenAI has announced<\/a> a handful of new data center sites in Texas, Ohio, and New Mexico. The energy-hungry projects<\/a> have been controversial, and they\u2019re often able to run with staff of a couple hundred people<\/a> after initial construction, despite promises of large-scale job creation.<\/p>\n

But OpenAI is full speed ahead. On Monday, it struck a deal with chipmaker AMD that could allow OpenAI to take a 10 percent stake<\/a>. Hours later, in the Q&A with reporters, Altman was asked how interested the company is in building its own chip. \u201cWe are interested in the full stack of AI infrastructure,\u201d he replied. At another point, he told reporters they should \u201cexpect to hear a lot more\u201d from OpenAI on the infrastructure stack.<\/p>\n

During the session, OpenAI executives over and over again emphasized the lack of compute and how much it can block OpenAI and its competitors from being able to offer services at scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsking, \u2018How much compute do you want?\u2019 is a little bit like asking, \u2018How much of the workforce do you want?\u2019\u201d Brockman said. \u201cThe answer is you can always get more out of more.\u201d And right now, more capacity for deepfaking your friends is the latest selling point.<\/p>\n

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