OpenAI gives content owners more control over Sora AI video app

ChatGPT creator OpenAI will soon introduce controls allowing content rights holders to dictate how their characters are used in its AI video-generating tool, Sora, and plans to share revenue with those who permit such use.

The company will give rights holders "more granular control over generation of characters," Chief Executive Sam Altman said on his blog Friday. Options for copyright owners, such as television and movie studios, will include the ability to block the use of their characters.

Scrutiny is growing over AI-generated content and its impact on intellectual property rights, as companies seek to balance innovation with fair compensation for creators.

OpenAI launched Sora this week as a standalone app, initially available in the United States and Canada. Videos created in the app can be up to 10 seconds long. The app, which quickly rose in popularity, lets users generate and share AI videos that can draw from copyrighted content and be shared on social media-like streams.

The company's copyright policy is expected to stir tensions in Hollywood. At least one major studio, Disney, has opted out of having its material appear in the app, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

OpenAI also plans to introduce a revenue-sharing model for copyright holders who allow their characters to be generated by users, Altman wrote. He said users are creating significantly more video content than expected, often for niche audiences, prompting the need for a monetization strategy.

Altman acknowledged that the revenue-sharing framework "will take some trial and error to figure out," but said implementation would begin soon as OpenAI tests various approaches within Sora before rolling out a consistent model across its broader product suite.

Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched a Sora model for public use last year, expanding its foray into multimodal AI technologies and competing with similar text-to-video tools from Meta and Alphabet's Google. Meta recently unveiled Vibes, a platform where users can create and share short-form AI-generated videos.