SAN FRANCISCO:
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is set to introduce critical new controls within its AI video-generating tool, Sora, that will allow content rights holders to dictate how their characters are used. The move is a direct response to mounting pressure over intellectual property rights, with the company also planning to share revenue with those who permit such AI-driven creation.
The announcement came from Chief Executive Sam Altman on his blog on Friday, where he stated that the artificial intelligence firm will provide rights holders with “more granular control over generation of characters.”
Altman confirmed that options for copyright owners, particularly television and movie studios, will include the ability to outright block the use of their intellectual property within the app.
Scrutiny over AI-generated content and its impact on creative compensation is intensifying globally, forcing tech companies to seek a delicate balance between fostering innovation and ensuring fair compensation for creators.
OpenAI officially launched Sora this week as a standalone application, initially available in the United States and Canada. The app allows users to create and share AI-generated videos, up to 10 seconds in length, which can be spun from existing—and potentially copyrighted—content and circulated on social media-like streams.
The app’s copyright policy has already begun to stir tensions in Hollywood. Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that at least one major studio, Disney, has preemptively opted out of having their material appear in the app.
In an effort to establish a sustainable and equitable model, Altman wrote that OpenAI also plans to introduce a revenue-sharing framework for copyright holders who agree to let users generate their characters.
He noted that the surge in user-created video content—often targeted at niche audiences—was significantly higher than anticipated, prompting the immediate need for a monetisation strategy.
Altman acknowledged that the revenue-sharing framework “will take some trial and error to figure out,” but insisted implementation would begin soon. OpenAI intends to test various approaches within the Sora application before rolling out a consistent and finalized model across its broader suite of products.
The Microsoft-backed company first launched a Sora model for public use last year, signaling its aggressive push into multimodal AI technologies and escalating its competition with rival text-to-video tools developed by Meta and Alphabet’s Google.
