The short-term availability of the Sora API was probably not a PR stunt by OpenAI. This allowed users to try out the long-announced video AI for a few hours via Hugging Face without any further conditions. Apparently, artists who were granted early beta access had made their access data publicly available. They did not feel selected or privileged as a result, but rather exploited. Which is why they used their exclusive access data for their own public relations work and made the API freely available with an appeal:
┌∩┐(◣◢)┌∩┐ DEAR CORPORATE AI OVERLORDS ┌∩┐(◣◢)┌∩┐
If this letter resonates with you add your signature here.
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.
ARTISTS ARE NOT YOUR UNPAID R&D
☠️ we are not your: free bug testers, PR puppets, training data, validation tokens ☠️
Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback and experimental work for the program for a valued company. While hundreds contribute for free, a select few will be chosen through a competition to have their Sora-created films screened — offering minimal compensation which pales in comparison to the substantial PR and marketing value OpenAI receives.
▌║█║▌║█║▌║ DENORMALIZE BILLION DOLLAR BRANDS EXPLOITING ARTISTS FOR UNPAID R&D AND PR ║▌║█║▌║█║▌
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.
[̲̅$̲̅(̲̅ )̲̅$̲̅] CORPORATE ARTWASHING DETECTED[̲̅$̲̅(̲̅ )̲̅$̲̅]
We are releasing this tool to give everyone an opportunity to experiment with what ~300 artists were offered: a free and unlimited access to this tool.
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). What we don&t agree with is how this artist program has been rolled out and 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.
We call on artists to make use of tools beyond the proprietary:
Open Source video generation tools allow artists to experiment with the avant garde free from gate keeping, commercial interests or serving as PR to any corporation. We also invite artists to train their own models with their own datasets.
Some open source video tools available are:
CogVideoX
Mochi 1
LTX Video
Pyramid Flow
However, as we are aware not everyone has the hardware or technical capability to run open source tools and models, we welcome tool makers to listen to and provide a path to true artist expression, with fair compensation to the artists.
Enjoy,
There is a lot more to add, but the campaign already shows very clearly that the tension between creatives and AI cannot be reduced to two clear poles. At the same time, the videos created as part of the campaign also show that Sora will continue to be one of the best AI video models, provided it is available in the near future.
If you search the web, you will now find numerous new Sora clips. This Youtuber, for example, has published an overview of the most sensational videos:
Bild zur Newsmeldung:
more infos at bei huggingface.co;)
