As OpenAI approaches Hollywood to ease concerns about Artificial Intelligence taking jobs, OpenAI has also revealed what creatives have been able to do with its text-to-video generator, Sora.
Since dropping the first batch of Sora generated videos in February, OpenAI has given a small number of directors, artists and other creatives, access to its world-changing AI model.
The results are a mix of the weird and wonderful, no doubt causing excitement and apprehension among members of the TV and film industries. OpenAI is aware of the concerns and that’s why it is cautious about the rollout of Sora.
shy kids from Toronto is a multimedia production company that used Sora for a short film about a balloon man.
As I discussed with Tim Gilbert on Sky News Weekend Edition, OpenAI wants to work with Hollywood, not against it. It will be a long time before AI can make a movie or TV show on its own, but there are clearly uses for platforms like Sora, right now.
For example, say I’m doing a sci-fi film that needs a desert background with two suns. I would write a prompt for Sora telling it, just that. It might take several requests but eventually I would arrive at version I’m happy to use. Once I have this background plate I could ask Sora to make subtle changes, like the time of day or season, when more vegetation is around. Over this background I could animate CG spacecraft or other objects.
This means a filmmaker can handoff a task to the computer, reducing the cost of personnel on the project. But this clearly means someone is losing work and this a concern. Initially though, when Sora is released publicly, I think it will be a great tool for the industry. Right now, it’s not direct enough when handling requests. It’s a bit of a lottery about what to expect when you enter your prompt. But sometimes you want that uncertainty that AI brings to the creative process. Take Don Allen III for example, as stated in OpenAI’s blog, Allen praised Sora’s “weirdness” as its greatest strength.
Sora’s “weirdness” is its greatest strength.
Computing power is also a massive factor. How much power will Sora need to produce 4K or 8K HDR files for film and broadcast? A lot.
So the next step has been taken, with creatives getting their hands on Sora. What’s the next one?
Stay tuned.