OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, will soon roll out new copyright controls for its AI video tool Sora, allowing rights holders to decide how their characters are used — and to share in revenue if they permit such use. Chief Executive Sam Altman announced the plan in a blog post Friday, describing it as a step toward balancing innovation with fair compensation for creators.
The controls will give television and movie studios “more granular control over generation of characters,” including the ability to block their use entirely. The move comes as scrutiny intensifies over how AI-generated content intersects with intellectual property rights, Reuters reported, with Hollywood studios closely watching how their franchises are treated in emerging platforms.
Launched this week as a standalone app in the U.S. and Canada, Sora allows users to create AI-generated videos up to 10 seconds long and share them in social media-style feeds. The app surged in popularity within days, with some users remixing copyrighted content. At least one major studio, Disney (DIS.N), has already opted out of having its material appear in the app, sources told Reuters.
Altman said OpenAI will also test a revenue-sharing model for rights holders who allow their characters to be used. “This will take some trial and error to figure out,” he acknowledged, noting that users are generating more niche video content than expected, which has accelerated the need for a monetization strategy. OpenAI intends to experiment with different frameworks in Sora before applying a consistent model across its broader AI product suite.
The rollout is part of Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI’s broader expansion into multimodal AI. Its Sora model, released for public use last year, competes with rival text-to-video systems from Meta (META.O) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google. Meta recently unveiled Vibes, a platform for creating and sharing short-form AI videos, underscoring how fiercely contested the space has become.
With Hollywood on edge, OpenAI’s plan to give studios both veto power and profit potential could set the tone for how AI companies and content creators coexist in the fast-evolving generative media landscape.
