\n<\/p>\n
\n\tNearly three years after OpenAI kickstarted an arms race with the public debut of its hallucinatory text generator ChatGPT, the Sam Altman-run firm launched a new frenzy with the release of its Sora 2, a video app that allows users to scan their face and place themselves in hyperrealistic clips. <\/p>\n
\n\tBut major studio executives and talent agency chiefs have been more preoccupied with how easily Sora is now able to spit out regurgitated intellectual property. Prompts can generate characters and scenes from, say, Bob\u2019s Burgers, SpongeBob SquarePants, Gravity Falls, Pok\u00e9mon<\/em>,\u00a0Grand Theft Auto<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Red Dead Redemption<\/em>, as The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> has detailed in using OpenAI\u2019s latest tool.<\/p>\n \n\tNot only have the likenesses of the characters been featured but those characters can look and sound like the studios\u2019 versions, raising questions about what control \u2014 if any \u2014 talent has over their likeness when users can endlessly prompt Sora 2 with manipulated versions of characters that they\u2019re associated with.<\/p>\n \n\tAt WME, head of digital strategy Chris Jacquemin sent a memo to agents this week saying that, in its conversations with OpenAI, the agency had alerted the tech giant that it was opting out all of its clients from the latest update of the video tool. That memo, sent Oct. 1, was issued a day after the Sept. 30 unveiling of Sora 2, which launched as an invite-only TikTok-style app encouraging sharing with friends.<\/p>\n \n\tBy Friday, Altman had presumably heard concerns from Hollywood IP rightsholders and issued a backtrack of his own on OpenAI\u2019s blog. \u201cFirst, we will give rightsholders more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls,\u201d the OpenAI chief wrote on Oct. 3. (What \u201cgranular\u201d means appears to be the operative word here.)<\/p>\n \n\tAltman and OpenAI appear to be pitching \u201cinteractive fan fiction\u201d as a lucrative emerging space for the studios, which \u201cthink this new kind of engagement will accrue a lot of value to them, but want the ability to specify how their characters can be used (including not at all),\u201d Altman wrote, in hyping up the potential revenue stream for Hollywood. In his walk back note, the exec struck a conciliatory approach: \u201cwe want to apply the same standard towards everyone, and let rightsholders decide how to proceed (our aim of course is to make it so compelling that many people want to).\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhether that will result in a new round of talks with stakeholders \u2014 studios, agencies, guilds, estates and more \u2014 or spur a round of lawsuits like the legal salvos lobbed by Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery against OpenAI rival Midjourney over its IP-infringing outputs may be the next question.<\/p>\n \n\tThe full Oct. 1 memo from WME\u2019s digital chief Chris Jacquemin to agents is below:<\/p>\n \n\tSubject:<\/strong>\u00a0OpenAI \/\/ Sora update<\/strong><\/p>\n As mentioned in our Rollout meeting, OpenAI has now released a new version of its Sora video generator, which allows users to create videos featuring copyright material unless copyright holders actively opt out. This means studios and other IP holders will need to explicitly ask OpenAI not to include their material in the videos Sora creates.\u00a0 For talent, music artists, athletes, models, etc, they have moved to an opt-in position, though our clients would still have some potential exposure due to the fact that some IP rightsholders have not opted out. Nearly three years after OpenAI kickstarted an arms race with the public debut of its hallucinatory text generator ChatGPT, the Sam Altman-run firm launched a new frenzy with the release of its Sora 2, a video app that allows users to scan their face and place themselves in hyperrealistic clips. But major studio executives and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[13660,15682,15295],"class_list":{"0":"post-26052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-clients","9":"tag-opting","10":"tag-sora"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00a0
There\u00a0is a strong need for real protections for artists and creatives as they encounter AI models using their intellectual property, as well as their name, image and likeness.\u00a0\u00a0Our position is that artists should have a choice in how they show up in the world and how their\u00a0likeness is used\u00a0and we have notified OpenAI that all WME clients be opted out of the latest Sora AI update, regardless of whether IP rights holders have opted out IP our clients are associated with.
\u00a0\u00a0
In addition, as you all know, WME has partnerships with both\u00a0Loti\u00a0and\u00a0Vermillio, two companies at the forefront of providing clients with solutions to protect their identity by detecting infringements and issuing takedowns.\u00a0\u00a0We have negotiated a no-cost service for\u00a0Loti and Vermillio available to all of our clients. For any clients not currently working with these services, we encourage you to raise this benefit so we can opt them in. \u00a0
\u00a0
These issues will continue to arise, and we are not just looking at Sora and OpenAI, but across the tech landscape. It\u2019s vital that we stay proactive and we plan to continue to fight for our clients\u2019 rights and protections.\u00a0
\u00a0
For any legal questions or concerns, please reach out to your respective BA lead or legal. For other questions or if you are interested in onboarding your clients onto Loti or Vermillio, please reach out to Chelsea Allen or Kate Lonczak.
\u00a0
Chris Jacquemin | WME<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"