The AI Company Pledges Enhanced Copyright Control Following Sora 2 Generates Footage of Well-Known Characters
OpenAI is vowing to offer rights owners with increased oversight regarding the creation of characters following its newly launched application, Sora 2, generated a flood of clips depicting protected figures.
Sora 2’s Launch and Initial Issues
Sora 2, driven by artificial intelligence, was rolled out last week on an invite-only arrangement. The application enables users to produce brief clips from a written description. Initial assessments of the machine-created content stream revealed protected characters from well-loved series such as animated series, South Park, creature-collecting franchises and sci-fi comedies.
Before the release of Sora 2, OpenAI reportedly told artist representatives and studios that if they wished to avoid their protected content replicated by the AI tool, they would need to decline.
“Our team will collaborate with copyright owners to prevent character generation upon request and address removal inquiries.”
OpenAI stated that rights holders can flag copyright infringement via a dedicated reporting tool, but creators or companies cannot have a universal exclusion.
Leadership’s Reaction and Upcoming Strategies
Recently, the company’s leader Sam Altman announced in a blog post that the organization had been “taking feedback” from users, rights holders and stakeholders, and would implement changes as a result.
He mentioned that rights holders would be provided more “granular control” over character generation, akin to how people can choose to share their own likeness in the app, but with “additional controls”.
“Many copyright owners have expressed enthusiasm for this innovative form of ‘interactive fan fiction’ and believe it will generate significant value, yet they desire the power to define usage terms for their characters, including complete prohibition.”
Handling Exceptions 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 bypass the platform’s guardrails that should not.
He added that the company would also “have to somehow make money” from video generation, and already the platform was observing people producing far greater content than expected per user. He suggested compensation to copyright owners who grant permission their characters to be created.
“We will need to experiment with different approaches to finalize the revenue structure, but implementation is imminent,” 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.”
He concluded by saying that there would be a high rate of change, comparable to the early ChatGPT days, and there would be both successful choices and occasional errors.
