OpenAI’s experimental text-to-video tool, Sora, was leaked online by a group of early-access users and artists, a protest against their contributions exploited for "unpaid research and development".
The group expressed their discontent by making a front-end version of the tool accessible on HuggingFace on November 26. However, OpenAI promptly intervened to restrict its availability.
Operating under the pseudonym "PR-Puppets," the beta testers claimed they were misled. Initially invited to participate as beta users, creative partners, and red teamers, they allege their unpaid efforts were appropriated to polish Sora’s image.
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An open letter accompanying the leak detailed grievances, saying:
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.
Before OpenAI disabled the leaked version, it remained operational for several hours, during which users shared video outputs generated by the tool. Code snippets shared online hinted that the leaked version was a faster, "turbo" iteration of Sora.
Sora’s initial announcement on February 16 had already drawn attention. Demonstrations revealed its ability to produce hyper-realistic video content from basic text prompts.
The clash between creators and corporations raises questions about the future of AI collaboration and fairness. Interestingly, OpenAI has faced scrutiny before, including from one of its most influential figures. What happened between Elon Musk and OpenAI’s ICO plan? Read the full story.
