Sora Will Soon Let You Create Cameos of Your Pets.
Sora , OpenAI’s AI-powered short video creation platform, has been available for iPhone for several weeks now. Users have been busy creating hyper-realistic vertical videos that, despite the watermarks, are already capable of misleading internet users .
Personally, I don’t see anything good in a tool that can create such videos based on simple prompts, except perhaps for the sheer novelty. However, the app is undoubtedly popular, and, as expected, OpenAI continues to “improve” it. On Wednesday, Sora CEO Bill Peebles shared a roadmap for future updates: from pet cameos to video editing tools.
Soon Sora will let you make cameos out of anything you want.
Peebles says “character cameos” will be coming in the coming days. When this feature becomes available, you’ll be able to create cameos of almost anything, including pets (Peebles suggests a dog or guinea pig), stuffed animals, and even AI-generated characters Sora may have created in his past videos.
Cameos are Sora’s defining and controversial feature. They allow you to scan yourself into the app and create videos of yourself. Furthermore, you can remix videos with cameos from other people who have scanned themselves in Sora, provided their permission allows for their cameos to be used. It’s impressive technology, but it raises serious ethical questions , given that you can force someone to do or say something they didn’t consent to. Now, it seems, you can do the same with the family cat or a stuffed animal from your childhood.
According to Peebles, these additional cameo options will allow you to see “the latest trending cameos in real time.” I imagine the idea is to browse the most popular cameos on the platform and, if desired, add them to your videos.
Sora will also receive basic video editing tools. According to Peebles, the ability to stitch multiple clips will be added first, with other “powerful new features” to follow. Peebles says the Sora team is also working to reduce “excessive moderation,” which he admits is “extremely annoying” for users, and to improve the app’s performance.
Speaking of apps, Android users will soon be able to try Sora. Currently, the app is only available for iOS, but Peebles says an Android version of Sora is “coming soon.”
A reminder to be careful about what you see online
As critical and cynical as I am about Sora and similar services, I see the benefit. I think people will appreciate the ability to place their pets in any situation they desire. And if they want to make an egg sing a song or a stuffed animal say “hello,” then they’re in luck.
But none of these updates have allayed my biggest concerns about the app: Sora still lets you create convincing videos with a simple prompt, and its only protection is a watermark that’s easy to remove if you know where to look. People were falling for fake videos online even before these tools existed; now, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell whether what you’re watching is real. If you want my opinion, it’s best to dismiss it all as fake.
Disclosure: Lifehacker’s parent company, Ziff Davis, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April, alleging that it infringed Ziff Davis’s copyrights in the training and operation of its artificial intelligence systems.