Fictional characters are (officially) coming to Sora as OpenAI manages copyright chaos

Collabs with fictional characters are on the horizon for Sora. Officially, that is, as OpenAI moves to restrict the flow of unauthorized horrors like meth-cooking and Nazi SpongeBobs and criminal Pokémon that have plagued the platform from day one.

Bill Peebles, leader of the Sora team at OpenAI, said fictional character appearances in videos, known as cameos, are “on the roadmap,” with details hopefully dropping “soon,” teasing a sanctioned way to use copyrighted characters on the platform.

It comes as CEO Sam Altman pivoted over the weekend from the company’s opt-out copyright policy it had been using for generating videos.  Altman has promised rightsholders — who he says are “very excited” for this new kind of ‘interactive fan fiction’” — “more granular control.” He says this will be similar to the opt-in model for using your likeness but with extra controls. 

Altman also said some form of revenue sharing with rightsholders whose characters are used will “start very soon,” though he warned the exact payment model will likely “take some trial and error to figure out.”