OpenAI is taking steps to walk back the flood of Hollywood intellectual property that has dominated its new AI video app Sora.
Late Friday night, OpenAI Sam Altman posted an update to his blog explaining the changes, which appear to be in response to concerns from entertainment companies and other rightsholders about how their IP or likenesses is being used in the social video app.
“First, we will give rightsholders more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls,” Altman wrote. “We are hearing from a lot of rightsholders who are very excited for this new kind of ‘interactive fan fiction’ and think this new kind of engagement will accrue a lot of value to them, but want the ability to specify how their characters can be used (including not at all).
The new rules will be closer to the opt-in model that Sora has for individuals, and suggest that the company is walking back the “opt-out” model that it had been using, at least when it comes to generating videos (it is possible that Sora is still training on videos featuring known characters and IP).
He added that there may be edge cases where content gets generated that shouldn’t, but that the company will keep iterating.
He also suggested that OpenAI may launch a revenue sharing product so that rightsholders could monetize videos that use their characters or likenesses.
“People are generating much more than we expected per user, and a lot of videos are being generated for very small audiences,” he wrote. “We are going to try sharing some of this revenue with rightsholders who want their characters generated by users. The exact model will take some trial and error to figure out, but we plan to start very soon.
As The Hollywood Reporter previously noted, Sora easily and quickly generates scenes featuring recognizable characters and voices, from South Park and Dune to Rick and Morty. The flood of well-known characters and IP that has dominated the Sora app enraged some Hollywood executives, with lawsuits likely to follow, though it is not clear if the new rules could shift that approach from rightsholders.