Artificial intelligence content generation has taken another big stride, with the recent launch of the Sora 2 app by OpenAI. Anything users imagine can now be made into a realistic 10-second vertical video via t new social media platform.
On September 20, the company behind ChatGPT launched the Sora 2 app, which allows users to generate short-form videos from text prompts, with some limitations. Users cannot generate content containing copyrighted material, graphic or violent content and more, as described in the official statement from OpenAI.
The launch of the new app has led to larger amounts of AI-generated content of celebrities on the internet. One of the most notable subjects being influencer Jake Paul, who was one of the first major internet figures to provide his likeness for public use.
“My first thought was that it was absolutely terrifying,” said Sissy Sheridan, a senior majoring in acting and social media influencer with nearly 6 million followers on TikTok. “I’ve been on social media since I was 15, turning 16, and I’ve had issues with people making deepfakes of me since then and that was edited pictures.”
Sheridan added that she has no intention of joining Sora because issues surrounding deepfakes are especially severe for women.
Sheridan believes that Paul’s involvement in the app’s launch is an outlier in that people are not concerned about negative content being generated of him.
“Paul’s been a controversial persona online for a really long time, so people, I think, don’t feel bad about it,” Sheridan said.
Regardless, a significant amount of risk is still involved with allowing users to portray Paul in whatever scenario they choose—so long as it is not halted by Sora’s guidelines.
“Jake Paul opted in as a chance to build his brand and extend his reach. I think it’s a good P.R. move for him,” said Freddy Tran Nager, clinical associate professor of communication at USC. “He’s approaching it smartly with a sense of humor. He’s laughing at himself, and people appreciate that.”
Paul isn’t the only celebrity whose likeness has been used in this recent wave of AI videos and not everyone has been viewing this recent trend as entertaining. The late comedian Robin Williams has also been featured in these videos. “Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” said Zelda Williams, his daughter, on an Instagram story.
Sora is currently only accessible via invitation. To use the app, users must receive an invite code from someone who already has access as well as a ChatGPT account. From there, users will receive between two and four invites to send out to other people. The Verge reported on Oct. 9 that the app has already surpassed 1 million downloads.
According to the OpenAI app description, the original model did not support depictions of real people. However, with the update of Sora 2, celebrities can now be generated into videos if they provide their likeness to the app and provide consent through the app’s privacy settings.
Copyrighted content is another concern of the platform.OpenAI has implemented a large number of guardrails into its software to prevent users from generating content that is not in the public domain. These guardrails also prevent users from generating graphic or violent content, as well as content involving a third-party likeness, as Sora guidelines describe it.
This means that, in theory, generating AI videos of living people, such as celebrities, should not be possible — unless they are registered on the app and their privacy settings allow it. In practice, however, a multitude of videos have appeared on the platform breaching the simple copyright infringement guardrail, depicting content from well-known media such as “South Park,” “Game of Thrones,” and more, bypassing guidelines using clever wording.
As AI content generation software evolves, so do the efforts to protect creators from being imitated by such software.
Sheridan, for example, said she worked with a company to get AI-generated content removed.
“Right now, you could talk to me as an A.I. or as a chatbot, and I could say things that obviously I’ve never allowed,” Sheridan said.
Although it may not pose an immediate threat to some creators like Paul, the professional image of influencers is something they curate carefully, Sheridan said, and may be harmed by software like Sora, especially if its internal guardrails continue to remain penetrable.
“If someone doesn’t do the research and take the time to find out that it isn’t me, it can be really harmful to me as a creator, and to me, my business, and my brand if that were to then go to brands that I work with,” Sheridan said.
Some users, who are not themselves influencers, have mixed feelings about Sora as it pertains to content creators.
“I’ve seen the Jake Paul videos and I think they are hilarious, but also kind of scary at the same time,” said Vanya Shrivastva, a sophomore majoring in artificial intelligence for business.
“Education is so important when it comes to AI,” Shrivastva said. “The more exposure you have to AI videos, you’ll start to see small things, like repeated head movements, that will tell you the clip is AI. But it takes a lot.”
Nager thinks the new app may make the general public more doubtful about the realness of online video content as a whole.
“People will stop to question real videos,” Nager said. “When you see something amazing, you’re just going to say, ‘Oh that’s just AI.’ Let’s say Jake Paul does something amazing. He saves somebody’s life, and it’s captured on video. People are going to think that’s just AI.”
“I think there will be issues, but I’m optimistic in the long run,” Nager continued. “I think with AI, you’re going to see people saying, ‘this is interesting, but now I want to create outside the lines.’”