OpenAI’s Sora Video Gen Tool Comes to ChatGPT — But It’s Not Cheap
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OpenAI has been evolving its ChatGPT platform at an alarming rate. Last month, it let its AI dive into real-time results with ChatGPT search (aka ”SearchGPT”), and now it’s taking the game beyond static images with its first video generation tool.
OpenAI teased the new service, dubbed Sora, back in February, but like SearchGPT, it was limited to only a select few. Today, however, it’s opened up the feature to all ChatGPT users — for a price.
In the same way that ChatGPT users can generate images using its Dall-E 3 model, Sora will let you create full-motion videos from text prompts. However, Sora goes beyond just creating videos, as you can start with a photo instead of a description, bring in other assets to include in your video, and then have the AI handle recutting, remixing, storyboarding, and more.
OpenAI showed Sora off during a livestream for day 3 of its “12 Days of OpenAI” product announcements, where it highlighted a collection of AI-generated videos that other community members have already created, storyboards to generate videos from a sequence of prompts, and remixing and blending scenes.
One example of a prompt shown on OpenAI’s Sora page starts by asking for a video or large doors opening into a library. Then, it refines that to change the doors, turn the library into a spaceship, a jungle, and a lunar view.
If that all sounds too good to be true, it’s important to remember that Sora is still very much a work in progress. Earlier today, Marques Brownlee posted an early video review in which he called the results “horrifying and inspiring at the same time.”
For example, while it’s cool that Sora can do what it can in the first place, Brownlee points out that it still has problems with spatial physics and figuring out how objects should interact. OpenAI is also quite candid about these issues:
The version of Sora we are deploying has many limitations. It often generates unrealistic physics and struggles with complex actions over long durations. Although Sora Turbo is much faster than the February preview, we’re still working to make the technology affordable for everyone.
Unsurprisingly, Sora also refuses to generate videos involving celebrities and other public figures or copyrighted content. Videos generated with Sora will all have C2PA metadata, so it will be clear they’re made with AI. For most folks, there will also be a visible watermark. If you’re working with existing photos or videos, you’ll need to confirm that what you’re uploading doesn’t include anyone under 18 or any explicit, violent, or copyrighted material — and OpenAI reserves the right to ban anyone who tries to skirt these rules.
We obviously have a big target on our back as OpenAI. We want to prevent illegal activity of Sora, but we also want to balance that with creative expression. We know that… will be an ongoing challenge, we might not get it perfect on day one. We’re starting a little conservative, and so if our moderation doesn’t quite get it right, just give us that feedback.Aditya Ramesh, OpenAI vice president of research
As for what all this will cost? First, you’ll need to be at least a ChatGPT Plus subscriber to access it. Free users can browse through a feed of videos created by others, but you won’t be able to create your own unless you pay up, and even the standard ChatGPT Plus plan has a few limitations. If you want to get serious with Sora, you’ll need to spring for OpenAI’s insanely expensive ChatGPT Pro plan, which will set you back $200 per month.
As part of their $20 monthly subscription, ChatGPT Plus subscribers will be able to generate up to 50 five-second videos per month at 480p resolutions or an unspecified number of “fewer videos” at 720p. All downloaded videos will be watermarked.
Those willing to spend $200 monthly for ChatGPT Pro will be able to create up to 500 priority videos and an unlimited number of “relaxed” videos (which take longer to create). Those videos can also be in resolutions up to 1080p and durations of up to 20 seconds. Members can also run five AI video generations concurrently.
Sora isn’t included with ChatGPT Team, Enterprise, or Educational plans. The company says it’s working on “tailored pricing for different types of users,” so we may see some intermediate plans early next year for those who need a bit more than what ChatGPT Plus offers.
While the service has been launched internationally to nearly everywhere ChatGPT is available, some exceptions exist, including the UK, Switzerland, and the European Economic Area. The company says it’s working on expanding it to those regions, but there’s no word on when that will happen.
