On Monday, December 9 (Eastern Time), OpenAI announced a special holiday gift on social media: Sora. Described as a tool capable of generating entirely new videos from text, Sora can bring static images to life. Users can also expand, remix, edit, or merge existing videos seamlessly.
Since the February preview release of Sora, OpenAI has been developing SoraTurbo, a significantly faster version of the model. On Monday, SoraTurbo was launched as a standalone product, available to ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Pro subscribers.
Live Stream Announcement
On December 9, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined Sora team leads Bill Peebles and Aditya Ramesh in a 20-minute live stream to introduce SoraTurbo. According to OpenAI, SoraTurbo offers much faster generation speeds compared to its predecessor.
During the stream, they demonstrated Sora’s capabilities, including generating 1080p videos up to 20 seconds long in various aspect ratios, such as:
•Landscape (16:9)
•Square (1:1)
•Vertical (9:16)
Sora supports advanced features, including:
•Remix: Replace, delete, or reconstruct video elements.
•Re-cut: Isolate the best frame, extend it, create looped clips, or seamlessly blend different scenes.
•Storyboard Editing: Precisely define input for each frame.
•Style Presets: Apply predefined video styles.
Sora also features a community exploration tool, allowing users to share their generated videos, browse others’ creations, and even remix shared videos. Users can opt out of sharing their content if they prefer.
Sora’s Role in Creativity and AI Collaboration
Altman emphasized that Sora is not just a technological innovation but a tool designed to empower creative professionals. He explained that OpenAI’s mission is to use AI to unlock human creativity. Through Sora, OpenAI envisions a new mode of collaboration between humans and AI, transcending traditional text-based interactions to convey richer emotions and details through video.
Sora also marks a milestone in OpenAI’s journey toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). It not only understands user prompts but also contextualizes them in a way that reflects their existence in the physical world.
Limitations and Feedback
Despite its promise, early user tests have highlighted some limitations. Issues such as unnatural hand movements, garbled text, and animals performing physically implausible actions (e.g., running animals suddenly flying) indicate that Sora’s understanding of physical laws remains imperfect.
Availability and Pricing
SoraTurbo is available to ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Pro users in 155 countries. However, it is not accessible in regions like the UK, most of Europe, and mainland China, where ChatGPT access is already restricted.
•ChatGPT Plus ($20/month): Offers up to 50 480p videos or fewer 720p videos per month, each lasting up to 5 seconds.
•ChatGPT Pro ($200/month): Allows for longer videos (up to 20 seconds), higher resolutions, and unlimited access to OpenAI’s other models, such as o1.
OpenAI also announced plans to introduce customized pricing options for different user types in early 2024.
Overwhelming Demand Crashes Sora Website
Due to unexpectedly high demand, the Sora website experienced outages. Sam Altman addressed the issue on X (formerly Twitter), stating:
“Demand exceeded expectations. Registrations may be intermittently closed, and generation speeds might slow as we scale. We’re doing our best!”
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