OpenAI CEO Sam Altman issued a major update for the AI video app Sora in the aftermath of copyright concerns from Hollywood.
The tech power player released a new statement Friday evening, where he confirmed two new changes were coming to the app — one of which will give more copyright control to rightsholders.
“We have been learning quickly from how people are using Sora and taking feedback from users, rightsholders and other interested groups,” Altman wrote in a new blog post. “We of course spent a lot of time discussing this before launch, but now that we have a product out we can do more than just theorize.”
As he continued, Altman noted the new changes were just two of “many more to come.”
“First, we will give rightsholders more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls,” he continued. “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).”
Sora’s initial opt out policy required companies to explicitly say they didn’t want their IP to appear on the app. If not, copyrighted content could find itself on to Sora. Disney has reportedly already opted out.
This sparked concern in Hollywood, prompting a response from Altman, who theorized users will “try very different approaches and will figure out what works for them.”
He added, “We want to apply the same standard towards everyone, and let rightsholders decide how to proceed (our aim of course is to make it so compelling that many people want to). There may be some edge cases of generations that get through that shouldn’t, and getting our stack to work well will take some iteration.”
Altman then noted Sora would be experimenting in ways to monetize the videos, too. In particular, the CEO explained they would be exploring revenue sharing with rightsholders when their characters are used.
“The exact model will take some trial and error to figure out, but we plan to start very soon,” Altman said. “Our hope is that the new kind of engagement is even more valuable than the revenue share, but of course we want both to be valuable.”
Before signing off his note, Altman warned that there would likely be both “good decisions and some missteps” as they implement the changes.
