On May 6th, early testers of OpenAI's text-to-video tool Sora seem to breathe a sigh of relief. They do not feel the looming threat of being replaced by this tool; instead, they find it enhances their work effortlessly.
In February this year, the AI startup OpenAI officially launched Sora, a tool designed to "deeply understand and simulate the changing real world." Sora is renowned for its unique text-to-video conversion technology, capable of generating high-quality videos up to one minute long. The concept validation video released online in February garnered widespread attention.
However, for some Hollywood professionals, the emergence of this technology undoubtedly poses a certain level of threat. Veteran filmmaker Tyler Perry was impressed by Sora's performance but also expressed some concerns. He even paused an $800 million studio expansion plan and called on Hollywood staff to unite and collectively address the challenges posed by artificial intelligence.
Although Sora has not been officially released to the public, many creatives in various fields have started experimenting with it. They express that the tool not only streamlines their work but also doesn't make them feel replaceable. Instead, Sora helps them convey abstract concepts more clearly, sparks inspiration to visualize ideas in new ways, and to some extent, reduces production costs. However, they emphasize that current Sora still requires human supervision and guidance.
Brand advertising consultant Charlotte Bunyan is one of the participants in the testing. She experienced Sora's capabilities by creating an advertisement for a "well-known supermarket" and mentioned that this tool "might" become a valuable assistant in her future work.
Bunyan took part in a comparative test organized by the Financial Times in the UK, involving Sora and competitors Runway and Pika, both of which claim to generate AI videos with just a few prompts.
In the test, Bunyan provided a prompt directly to Pika and Runway, while OpenAI modified the prompt for Sora. Bunyan stated that compared to other tools, Sora's presentation of the prompt is more "faithful." However, all three tools "accelerate the way we communicate creative ideas and make them more tangible." Yet, she mentioned that regardless of the tool used, content generated through editing tools seems to still require a "human touch."
Others point out that Sora's lack of consistency may bring new creative opportunities. It was reported that the longest work produced in collaboration with Sora was the music video for Washed Out's new song "The Hardest Part."
The director of this video, Paul Trillo, expressed his unique feelings about Sora-generated videos in a post on X platform. He was "enamored with illusions, bizarre details, dreamlike motion logic, distorted reflections of memory, and the surreal qualities unique to Sora and artificial intelligence."
Reportedly, this video was assembled by Sora from 55 segments generated based on detailed prompts. However, the coherence of these segments is not always flawless. In the video, the images of a couple and their child vary across different segments. Nevertheless, Trillo chose to overlook these differences, as in a way, they enhanced the dreamlike nature of the video. He believes Sora can complement the creative process but should not be the dominant tool.
Trillo added, "You have to understand where to push back against Sora. Dealing with this, you have to give up some free will, you have to accept the chaos and uncertainty it brings."
