In an industry prone to big emotional swings, artificial intelligence has produced a profound panic. Hollywood recently woke up to the news that fresh hell had arrived in the form of Sora 2, an OpenAI product that quickly and seamlessly creates videos with recognizable characters. Users can even insert themselves into the middle of the action—all for free, for now.
Within hours of the product’s launch, social media was awash in user-generated clips that injected figures from Star Wars, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Pokémon into various fantasies. This was Hollywood’s nightmare come to life: an AI technology that runs roughshod over the creative copyrights at the heart of the entertainment business. Sora offers “exploitation, not innovation,” warned the United Talent Agency, which represents artists and their precious intellectual property. Threats from Hollywood talent agencies, guilds, and other associations swiftly pushed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to dial back Sora’s terms.
But the drama over Sora 2 stands in contrast with the slow progress AI technology has actually made in penetrating Hollywood. While the panic in the trenches is real, and the concerns over copyright infringement grab headlines—three major studios are suing the AI company Midjourney—AI has yet to yield the dreaded industry job losses.
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