OpenAI Reveals AI Video Generation Tool with Potential Implications for Production Industry

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, announced on Thursday the launch of a new tool that can generate videos from text prompts. 

Named Sora after the Japanese word for 'sky', this new tool is capable of producing high quality, realistic moving images up to one minute long. It can create different visual styles, such as animation or even making a film to appear as if shot on 35mm film, based on the prompts that a user inputs. 

An OpenAI blog post said, "Sora is able to generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background. The model understands not only what the user has asked for in the prompt, but also how those things exist in the physical world."

The blog post included several examples of videos made using Sora and the prompts used to generate them. An example was, “A movie trailer featuring the adventures of the 30-year-old space man wearing a red wool knitted motorcycle helmet, blue sky, salt desert, cinematic style, shot on 35mm film, vivid colors.”

Sora is not yet available for public use. OpenAI is working with "red teamers" - domain experts in areas like misinformation, hateful content and bias - to test its adherence to the company's usage policies, "like those that request extreme violence, sexual content, hateful imagery, celebrity likeness, or the IP of others". Limited access is also being allowed to a select few visual artists, designers, and filmmakers "to gain feedback on how to advance the model to be most helpful for creative professionals". 

That said, a public rollout of Sora would have widespread potential implications on creative professionals, Considering the tool's capability of generating videos up to 60 seconds, it could have a particularly notable effect on those working in commercial production.

Steve Davies, chief executive of the Advertising Producers Association, said: “I am looking forward to trying it. It is going to be really interesting to see how directors utilise it. The AI orthodoxy is that it will help people creative people do their jobs better, rather than replace them. We subscribe to that but if I am wrong you can come back next year and ask AI Steve!”