OpenAI has suspended access to its highly anticipated video generation tool, Sora, following a significant backlash from a group of artists who accused the company of exploiting their work for unpaid labor. The controversy arose when a small number of beta testers leaked the early access version of Sora, claiming they had been misled into participating in an unpaid research and promotional campaign.
Sora, OpenAI’s cutting-edge AI video generator, was first teased in February and promised to revolutionize content creation. To test the tool before its public release, OpenAI invited hundreds of artists to become early testers. However, a group of about 20 artists quickly voiced their discontent, accusing the company of using them as “PR puppets” to promote the tool under the guise of a collaborative artist program.
The artists argued that they were not adequately compensated for their contributions and labeled the initiative as “art washing” — a practice where companies co-opt artists to give credibility to their products without fair remuneration. In protest, the artists allegedly leaked a working version of Sora’s interface to the public, allowing others to generate AI videos that closely resembled OpenAI’s own demos.
The protesting artists issued a statement giving their concerns. They said that in it, they were informed that they would have married “creative partners” when it came to testing, but they were simply treated as a bunch of unpaid R&D. The letter explicitly stated:
Currently, some activists insist that users are not free bug reporters, PR parrots, training material, or validation tokens.
Despite supporting the notion, the whole group also accused OpenAI of not respecting artist rights since they are being used then their work is sold without giving back to them.
OpenAI however did not react to the leak and the subsequent developments by coming out in the open to explain whether the Sora leaked version was real or not. However, the company stressed that artists did not have to agree to participate in the research preview, or even use the tool to give feedback. It also clarified that OpenAI had been offering Sora free of cost to artists and was ready to back up artists through scholarships and performances.
Nevertheless, it has spurred debates over the ethical standards of endowing artists with AI tests for free, and now OpenAI will have to explain why it does not pay creatives for their experimental work.
This sudden suspension by its company reminds audiences once more of this II tension between on the one hand AI and on the other the arts especially when it comes to artists’ work being used for so called free labor. Still the many artists’ and creatives’ rights violations remain unanswered; therefore, it is unclear how OpenAI will tackle all these problems and regain the artists’ trust.