OpenAI Pledges Enhanced Intellectual Property Management After Sora 2 Generates Videos of Popular Figures
OpenAI is vowing to provide rights owners with “more granular control” over character generation after its newly launched tool, Sora 2, produced a wave of clips featuring protected characters.
Sora 2’s Launch and Initial Issues
Sora 2, driven by artificial intelligence, was rolled out last week on an exclusive basis. The application allows users to produce brief clips from a text prompt. Initial assessments of the AI-generated video feed showed protected figures from popular shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, adult cartoons, Pokémon and sci-fi comedies.
Before launch of Sora 2, OpenAI reportedly told talent agencies and studios that if they did not want their copyrighted material copied by the video generator, they would have to opt out.
“Our team will collaborate with copyright owners to prevent character generation upon request and address removal inquiries.”
OpenAI stated that content owners can report unauthorized use using a “copyright disputes form”, but individual artists or studios are not granted a blanket opt-out.
Leadership’s Response and Future Plans
On Saturday, OpenAI CEO the chief executive announced in a public statement that the company had been gathering input from users, rights holders and stakeholders, and would make adjustments accordingly.
He mentioned that copyright owners would be provided more “granular control” over character generation, akin to how users can choose to share their own image in the app, but with “additional controls”.
“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).”
Addressing Edge Cases and Monetization Plans
Altman said that OpenAI would allow copyright owners to determine their approach and that there would be some unusual instances of content that get through the system’s protections that ought not to.
Altman continued that the company would also need to generate revenue from video generation, and currently the system was seeing people generating much more content than expected per user. This could mean compensation to rights holders who allow their characters to be created.
“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.”
Altman finished by saying that there would be a rapid pace of evolution, comparable to the initial stages of ChatGPT, and there would be both successful choices and occasional errors.
