A group of artists who helped test Sora accused OpenAI of exploiting their work for free without permission to publish their work
For a short time on Tuesday, November 26, angry artists opened access to a tool that allowed anyone to use OpenAI’s unofficially released Sora model. As a reminder, Sora is capable of create amazingly detailed and realistic videos based on textual descriptions.
У open letter under the headline «Dear Corporate Masters of Artificial Intelligence», accompanied by images of middle finger gestures, the artists said they were offered early access to Sora to test the product and become creative partners. In return, they believe that OpenAI was trying to exploit hundreds of artists who would not have been remunerated to train the model.
«Hundreds of artists are doing unpaid work in the form of bug testing, feedback, and experimental work in a program for the benefit of a $150 billion company. While hundreds are contributing for free, a few will be selected through a competition to showcase the films they’ve created on Sora with minimal compensation that gets lost in the shuffle against the huge PR and market value of OpenAI», — 16 artists wrote on the Hugging Face AI modeling platform.
The authors of the letter state that they are not against the use of artificial intelligence as an artistic tool, but the protest is directed against a specific early access program that seems to be more of a PR stunt than an opportunity to test the program and criticize its shortcomings. The participants say that all the videos they created with the tool had to be approved by OpenAI before being distributed.
«We do not agree with the way this program has been rolled out and how the tool is being filled in the run-up to a possible public release. We are sharing this with the world in the hope that OpenAI will become more open, more artist-friendly, and support art without PR stunts».
The tool published on Hugging Face no longer works, and the letter states that OpenAI has temporarily closed the Sora early access program for artists.
«Sora is still in preview, and we’re working to balance creativity with strong security measures for wider use. Hundreds of artists in our alpha have been working on Sora’s development, helping to prioritize new features and conditions. Participation is voluntary, with no obligation to provide feedback or use the tool. We are pleased to offer these artists free access and will continue to support them through grants, events, and other programs. We believe that artificial intelligence can be a powerful creative tool, and we are committed to making Sora both useful and safe,» said Open AI spokesperson Taya Christianson in a statement to Gizmodo.
OpenAI demonstrated the capabilities of Sora in February at the web page with the videos it created. Sam Altman called it a «moment of greatness», but Sora is still not available for use.
Source: Gizmodo