Meet Sora—OpenAI’s new text-to-video generator. The tool, which the San Francisco company unveiled Thursday, uses generative artificial intelligence to instantly create short videos based on written commands.
Generative AI is a branch of AI that can create something new. Examples include chatbots, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and image-generators such as DALL-E and Midjourney. Getting an AI system to generate videos is newer and more challenging but relies on some of the same technology. While Sora-generated videos can depict complex, incredibly detailed scenes, OpenAI notes that there are still some weaknesses—including some spatial and cause-and-effect elements. For example, OpenAI adds on its website, “a person might take a bite out of a cookie, but afterward, the cookie may not have a bite mark.”OpenAI’s Sora isn’t the first of its kind. Google, Meta and the startup Runway ML are among companies that have demonstrated similar technology.
While there has been “tremendous progress” in AI-generated video over the last year—including Stable Video Diffusion’s introduction last November—Forrester senior analyst Rowan Curran said such videos have required more “stitching together” for character and scene consistency. “The negative externalities of generative AI will be a critical topic for debate in 2024,” Havemeyer said. “It’s a substantial issue that every business and every person will need to face this year.”