OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it is shutting down Sora, a TikTok-like social app that
launched six months ago. OpenAI did not give a reason for the shut down, nor did it share information about when it will officially be discontinued.
Sora was intended to function like an AI-first TikTok, cloning the recognizable vertical video feed interface. Its flagship feature, “cameos,” allowed people to scan their faces and make realistic deepfakes of themselves. These “cameos” could be made public, allowing anyone to make videos of their “cameo.” (Cameo took OpenAI to court over the name of this feature and prevailed, forcing the company to change it to “characters.”)
Sora was not supposed to allow people to generate videos of public figures who did not explicitly opt-in, but it was all too easy to evade OpenAI’s guardrails. Sure enough, deepfakes of real people like civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and actor Robin Williams emerged, prompting both of their daughters to go on Instagram and ask users to stop making videos of their deceased fathers.
Though the underlying Sora 2 video- and audio-generation model is scarily impressive, there was not sustained interest in an AI-only social feed.
techcrunch.com
