Why Irate Artists Leaked OpenAI’s AI Video Generator Sora

On Tuesday, a group of 16 artists leaked OpenAI’s unreleased Sora text-to-video generator to the public.

In an open letter addressed to “Corporate AI Overlords” and posted on the AI hosting platform Hugging Face, the artists explained that they obtained early access to Sora in exchange for testing it. They said they weren’t against AI as an artistic tool and wouldn’t have been invited to the program alongside about 300 other artists if they were.

However, they now believe that OpenAI was trying to use their feedback to “art wash” or to tell other artists that Sora is useful. They also took fault with OpenAI for not compensating them for their efforts.

Related: ‘I Am Absolutely Terrified’: OpenAI’s New Project Isn’t ‘Broadly’ Available Yet — But It’s Already Setting Off Alarm Bells

“Artists are not your unpaid R&D [Research and Development],” the artists wrote. “Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback and experimental work for the program for a $150B …