Thought deepfakes were bad? OpenAI wants you to hold its beer (or non-alcoholic CBD seltzer for the AI-crazed, e/acc San Franpsychos) because it has a new AI-flavored surprise for the world… one that is so realistic, you might never know that it was computer-generated.

Visual Sora-cerer: Last week, the company behind ChatGPT and DALL-E showed off its new AI model, Sora, which can turn text prompts into photo-realistic videos up to a minute long. Sora can “generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background.”

• Macquarie’s research lead Fred Havemeyer says the outputs are a “big step forward” compared to the ridiculous-looking AI-generated videos AI was outputting a year ago (remember Will Smith eating spaghetti?)
• OpenAI researchers claim that video renders can be completed over a lunch break, but its incredible (and scary) realism requires lots of computing power (GPUs) to run and render scenes.

Is anything real anymore?

Product Hacks’ Yash Bhardwaj said it best: “OpenAI isn’t even competing with any other AI company, Hollywood, or Shutterstock. They’re in direct competition with cocaine.” That’s because Sora is so realistic that it could substitute for reality — which could be a big problem for business and politics.

• Sora is so convincing that OpenAI won’t release it publicly (yet), citing its potential use in misinformation and abusive content.
• Making matters worse, Sora could jeopardize workers’ jobs in the entertainment, news, and content industries.

Sam’s got a plan: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has echoed that AI technology could derail society without adequate international regulation — assuming AI isn’t used to influence the 50+ elections this year. But don’t expect it to come quickly, and don’t expect Altman to stop — as he soldiers on towards artificial general intelligence (AGI), which he hopes will unlock the full potential of humanity. In the meantime, the company is working alongside thought leaders to identify positive use cases for Sora. But you already know who’s itching to get their hands on this groundbreaking technology — Hollywood execs.