A year after tech firm OpenAI excited Hollywood with the release of its video tool Sora AI, CEO Sam Altman is back—with a potentially revolutionary update.
Unlike the conventional images Sora was originally able to create, the new program allows users to upload videos of real people and place them in an AI-generated environment with sound effects and dialogue.
In one of the videos, a synthetic Michael Jackson makes a selfie video with Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston. Another features an image of SpongeBob SquarePants standing behind the White House Oval Office desk.
“Excited to launch Sora 2!” Altman wrote on the social network X on September 30: “Video models have come a long way, this is a huge research achievement.”
But the enthusiasm was not shared in Hollywood, where new artificial intelligence tools have sparked strong backlash. At the heart of the dispute is the question of who controls copyrighted images and likenesses of actors and licensed characters, and how much compensation they should receive for their use in AI models.
Cinematographers Association. the trade group didn't mince words.
“OpenAI needs to take immediate and decisive action to address this issue,” Chairman Charles Rivkin said Monday. “Well-established copyright law protects the rights of creators and applies here.”
By the end of the week, several agencies and unions, including SAG-AFTRA, had echoed similar statements, marking a rare moment of consensus in Hollywood and putting OpenAI on the defensive.
“We're working directly with studios and rights holders, listening to feedback and learning how people use Sora 2,” Varun Shetty, OpenAI's vice president of media partnerships, said in a statement. “Many people are creating original videos and looking forward to interacting with their favorite characters, which we see as an opportunity for rights holders to connect with fans and share their creativity.”
For now, the showdown between the well-capitalized OpenAI and major Hollywood studios and agencies appears to be just the beginning of a brutal legal battle that could shape the future of AI in the entertainment business.
“It’s not so much a question of whether studios will try to make a statement, but when and how,” said Anthony Glukhov, a senior associate at the law firm Ramo, of the clash between Silicon Valley and Hollywood over artificial intelligence. “They can claim whatever they want, but in the end, it's going to be two titans who fight it out.”
Before OpenAI became the target of the creative community's ire, it was secretly trying to break into the film and TV business.
Last year, the company's management went on a charm offensive. They reached out to key entertainment industry players including Walt Disney Co. to discuss potential areas of cooperation and try to allay concerns about their technology.
This year, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup took a more bold approach.
Before introducing Sora 2 to the general public, OpenAI executives held talks with some studios and talent agencies, warning them that they needed to explicitly state which pieces of intellectual property, including licensed characters, would not be depicted on the artificial intelligence platform, according to two sources familiar with the matter but not authorized comment. According to people, the actors will be included in Sora 2 unless they opt out.
OpenAI disputes this claim and says the company has always been committed to giving actors and other public figures control over how their images are used.
The reaction was immediate.
Beverly Hills talent agency WME, which represents stars such as Michael B. Jordan and Oprah Winfrey, told OpenAI that its actions are unacceptable and that all of its clients will refusal to participate.
Creative Artists Agency and United Talent Agency also argued that their clients had the right to control their images and be compensated for them.
Studios, including Warner Bros., supported this view.
“Decades of copyright law have established that content owners do not have to give up the use of their protected intellectual property,” Warner Bros. said in a statement. Discovery. “As technology advances and platforms evolve, traditional copyright principles do not change.”
Unions, including SAG-AFTRA, whose members were already alarmed by the recent emergence a fake composition named Tilly Norwood, created by artificial intelligence. — also expressed concern.
“OpenAI's decision to enforce copyrights only through an 'opt-out' model threatens the economic foundation of our entire industry and highlights the stakes in the litigation currently winding its way through the courts,” newly elected President Sean Astin and National CEO Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a statement.
The dispute highlights the clash of two very different cultures. On the one hand, there is the brash Silicon Valley ethos of “move fast and break things,” where asking for forgiveness is considered preferable to asking for permission. On the other hand, there is Hollywood's eternal wariness about the impact of new technologies and its desire to maintain control over increasingly valuable intellectual property rights.
“The challenge, as we've seen, is balancing opportunity with the original rights that other people have,” said Rob Rosenberg, a partner at the law firm Moses & Singer LLP and former general counsel for Showtime Networks. “This is what drove the entire entertainment industry crazy.”
Amid the outrage, Sam Altman wrote on his blog days after Sora 2's launch that the company would give rights holders more granular control and was working to compensate them for video production.
OpenAI said it has guardrails that block the creation of famous characters and a team of reviewers that removes material that does not comply with its updated policies. Copyright holders may also request that content be removed.
A strong response from the creative community could be a strategy that forces OpenAI to enter into licensing agreements for the content they want, legal experts say.
Existing law is clear: The copyright owner has full control over his copyrighted material, says Ray Saley, an entertainment litigation specialist at the law firm Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir.
“It’s not your job to go around telling other people to stop using it,” he said. “If they use it, they use it at their own risk.”
Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery previously sued artificial intelligence companies MiniMax and Middle of the roadaccusing them of copyright infringement.
One challenge is to find a way to fairly compensate talent and rights holders. Several people working in the entertainment industry ecosystem said they don't believe flat fees work.
“Give monetization, which is not a one-size-fits-all,” said Dan Neely, chief executive of Chicago-based Vermillio, which works with Hollywood talent and studios and advocates for the use of their images and characters in artificial intelligence. “This is what will move the needle for talent and studios.”
Guest journalist Nilesh Christopher contributed to this report.
