A group of artists who received early access to beta test the artificial intelligence video creation tool Sora has leaked its code and released a blistering letter critical of its creator, OpenAI—the company behind ChatGPT.
“We received access to Sora with the promise to be early testers, red teamers, and creative partners. However, we believe instead we are being lured into art washing, to tell the world that Sora is a useful tool for artists,” the artists said in the open letter.
The letter was published with the leaked code for Sora on Hugging Face, an open-source platform for machine learning and artificial intelligence that provides tools for building and deploying A.I. models.
The artists claimed the $150 billion company failed to compensate them and engaged in practices like censorship of artistic content and gatekeeping by only allowing around 300 selected artists to use Sora.
When Artnet reached an artist among the group, they were initially open to receiving questions. But the collective ultimately decided not to answer further questions, including if they were worried of repercussions and if OpenAI has legal standing to censor them from sharing generated outputs. They also did not address whether concerns of gatekeeping would end if Sora were to be released to the public. They referred Artnet back to the letter.
“Artists are not your unpaid R&D. We are not your free bug testers, PR puppets, training data, validation tokens,” the open letter reads.
The artists said that only a few of the hundreds of artists who used Sora were chosen through an internal competition to have films they created screened with minimal compensation they said “pales in comparison” to the marketing value generated by allowing them to use the tool.
“Furthermore, every output needs to be approved by the OpenAI team before sharing. This early access program appears to be less about creative expression and critique, and more about PR and advertisement,” they said in the letter.
The artists noted that they are not against the use of A.I. technology to make art or they probably wouldn’t have been invited into the program by OpenAI. But they said they are concerned with “how the tool is shaping up” ahead of a possible public release.
“We are sharing this to the world in the hopes that OpenAI becomes more open, more artist friendly and supports the arts beyond PR stunts,” the artists said, urging people to use open-source software instead of proprietary platforms like those of OpenAI.
A spokesperson for OpenAI addressed the controversy by email, noting to Artnet that Sora is still in a research preview to balance its creative applications with the development of safety measures for broader use. She confirmed that hundreds of artists have been involved with the process.
“Participation is voluntary, with no obligation to provide feedback or use the tool. We’ve been excited to offer these artists free access and will continue supporting them through grants, events, and other programs,” the spokesperson said. “We believe A.I. can be a powerful creative tool and are committed to making Sora both useful and safe.”
Artists participating in the testing program have no obligations to the company beyond sharing confidential details about its development with the public, and there are no explicit usage requirements for them. And the company has made efforts to provide artists with access and funding, such as the company’s first resident artist, Alexander Reben.