Sora’s fascinating video-verse

Interesting prompts: It has been three days since OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Sora, a video-generating software for minute-long videos based on text prompts.

The service, which is open to creators and cybersecurity professionals, saw captivating videos posted by creators.

These combined realistic scenarios, like a grandmother in a kitchen or a woman walking down the streets of Tokyo.

But it also unleashed bizarre creative ideas, like animals cycling to dogs on a podcast.

OpenAI Researcher Bill Peebles shared this video, with a prompt “Welcome to bling zoo! this is a single video generated by Sora, shot changes and all.”
 

Still of video shared by OpenAI researcher | Bling Zoo

After Altman’s announcement, there was also indirect people participation as people suggested prompts to him on X, following which Altman posted the videos on X.

Freelance photographer Cate Bligh shared a prompt of an instructional cooking session for homemade gnocchi, hosted by a grandmother who is also a social media influencer. The backdrop was set in a rustic Tuscan country kitchen, with cinematic lighting.

Altman shared the realistic clip: 

 

Still of video shared by OpenAI CEO | Grandma

CRED CEO Kunal Shah shared a prompt of a bicycle race on the ocean with different animals as athletes, who are riding the bicycles with a drone camera view.

Replying to him, Altman shared the imaginative yet real-looking video:

 

Still of video shared by OpenAI CEO | Cycling animals

In a twist of events, users shared original film clips that were mistaken as Sora-generated clips, the most notable one being a movie scene from Singham.

Noted psychologist Jordan Peterson commented on the prompt and video: “Stunning. Goodbye Hollywood. It was nice knowing you.”

Jordan B Peterson on X | Singham

Users were fast to share skepticism, with a glitch video that showed five paws of a cat trying to wake their owner:
 

Cat waking up owner | Clip still

Others speculated of deepfakes, like forged crime scenes, and called for regulating the technology.

While generative technologies have the potential to cut automated and mundane tasks, they can also replace industries, if not select jobs. 

The recent foray of OpenAI into videos can not automate many roles in the video industry across cinema, digital and news platforms, but also create dangerously real content.