OpenAI said today that it has released new policies around its artificial intelligence tool Sora 2, following concerns from Hollywood studios and actors’ unions that the talent is being generated without consent.
OpenAI’s new generative video model lets users to create videos with a prompt. With little effort, famous figures, living or deceased, can do whatever they’re told to, or appear in the video with each other. It has certainly ruffled feathers, with the late Robin Williams’ daughter, Zelda, calling videos of her father “dumb,” “disgusting” “TikTok slop” and “not what he’d want.”
Last week, Open AI had to pause generations of Martin Luther King Jr., calling videos with his likeness “disrespectful depictions” of the deceased civil rights leader. The company said it was working on guardrails to prevent such abuse, but that didn’t stop users from generating videos of well-known figures.
Actor Bryan Cranston, arguably best known for his character Walter White in the TV show “Breaking Bad,” had also expressed concern after his AI-generated image appeared on the internet in various forms, seen with the deceased singer Michael Jackson and the copyrighted character Ronald McDonald.
Cranston bought the matter up with the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA. Sean Astin, the president of the union, said actors now faced “massive misappropriation” of their identities. United Talent Agency called for more controls or compensation, adding that the “use of such property without consent, credit or compensation is exploitation, not innovation.” Creative Artists Agency has also voiced similar criticism.
The backlash was enough to force changes, as OpenAI again promised to strengthen the guardrails around such abuse. “All artists, performers, and individuals will have the right to determine how and whether they can be simulated,” the company said in a statement. Altman himself said he is “deeply committed to protecting performers from the misappropriation of their voice and likeness.”
Cranston expressed relief, issuing the statement, “I am grateful to OpenAI for its policy and for improving its guardrails, and hope that they and all of the companies involved in this work, respect our personal and professional right to manage replication of our voice and likeness.”
Image: Open AI
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