OpenAI seeks to monetize Sora and hand more controls to rights holders

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images News

Days after launching Sora 2 this week, OpenAI, the tech startup backed by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/MSFT]), said that it will soon roll out two major changes to the AI video-generating tool, which became the number one app in Apple’s (AAPL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AAPL]) App Store on Friday. [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4501738-openais-new-sora-app-tops-app-store]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on a blog post late Friday that his company seeks to make money from the platform and permit rights holders to exercise additional controls over the use of their copyrighted content on the app.

“We have been learning quickly from how people are using Sora and taking feedback from users, rightsholders, and other interested groups,” Altman wrote, adding, “We are going to make two changes soon (and 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,” a potential reversal from the opt-out process the company had practiced for the new Sora version.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the ChatGPT maker had been informing talent agencies and studios about the upcoming product and its opt-out process, which requires an explicit request from rightsholders not to include their copyrighted material on the platform.

“We are hearing from a lot of rightsholders who [https://blog.samaltman.com/sora-update-number-1] 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),” Altman added.

As the second change, he cited plans to make money from video creation on Sora. “We are going to try sharing some of this revenue with rightsholders who want their characters generated by users,” he wrote, adding, “The exact model will take some trial and error to figure out, but we plan to start very soon.”

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