OpenAI hits pause on video model Sora after artists leak access in protestA group of artists created a webpage allowing anyone to make AI videos using Sora. They argue the maker of ChatGPT used artists as “PR puppets” without pay.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/11/26/openai-sora-ai-video-model-artists-protest/
OpenAI suspended access to its unreleased but highly anticipated video generation tool Sora on Tuesday after a small group of artists leaked access to the tool in protest of the company’s treatment of creative professionals who test the tool with minimal compensation, acting as “PR puppets.”
OpenAI had granted hundreds of artists free, early access to Sora, to test the new artificial intelligence video generator. But about 20 artists given access to the tool argued the company had taken advantage of their unpaid labor and were using them to burnish the company’s image.
To draw attention to OpenAI’s practices, the group posted an online tool allowing the public to use Sora to generate videos.
“Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback and experimental work for the program for a $150B valued company,” the group wrote in a fiery statement posted on Hugging Face, an open source repository for artificial intelligence projects.
The opportunities offered in return for helping the company, such as being selected to have their Sora-created films screened, offer “minimal compensation which pales in comparison to the substantial PR and marketing value OpenAI receives,” the artists added.
The tool was accessible for only three hours, the artists said, after OpenAI quickly shut down the interface. OpenAI spokesperson Niko Felix said the company is temporarily pausing all user access to Sora while it looks into the situation.
“Hundreds of artists in our alpha have shaped Sora’s development, helping prioritize new features and safeguards,” Felix wrote in a statement from OpenAI. “Participation is voluntary, with no obligation to provide feedback or use the tool.”
Although Tuesday’s stunt was called a “leak” on social media, the artists did not have access to OpenAI’s code or proprietary information. They created a public webpage that allowed anyone to make use of the Sora access OpenAI had provided to the artists for their private use and testing.
The group’s stunt was an unusual move in the AI industry, where feedback from early testers is tightly controlled by companies, and harsh criticism is rarely made public. Typically companies hand-select which outsiders receive early access to examine a system, in some cases requiring these users to sign nondisclosure agreements or obtain approval before publicly sharing any images, videos, or text responses generated by the system.
The process of using outside testing, sometimes called “red teaming,” — a term borrowed from cybersecurity — has been widely adopted across the AI industry, prompting even U.S. government agencies to follow a similar safety protocol. But recently a growing contingent of AI security experts, and now artists, critique the approach as having a chilling effect on independent research, reducing transparency, and preventing accountability for company practices.
“We are not against the use of AI technology as a tool for the arts (if we were, we probably wouldn’t have been invited to this program),” the group of artists wrote on Hugging Face.
OpenAI said in May that it was providing early access to Sora to “red teamers to assess critical areas for harms or risks” and “visual artists, designers, and filmmakers to gain feedback on how to advance the model to be most helpful for creative professionals.”
After OpenAI paused access to Sora, the artist group linked to a site encouraging anyone who shares their views to sign the open letter. It has received almost 100 signatures. The group behind the Hugging Face post declined to respond to questions.
Sora has attracted scrutiny before, after OpenAI’s former chief technology officer Mira Murati ducked questions about whether the company had used videos from YouTube to train the system.
André Allen Anjos, a musician known as RAC who had been granted early access to Sora, told The Washington Post the group’s stance did not reflect the view of most artists in the early access program.
“If anything, everybody is excited about being involved. The team is led by artists and they’re doing it right,” he wrote, noting that program participants were under NDA so he did not have much more to share.
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