OpenAI just gave artists access to Sora and proved the AI video tool is weirder and more powerful than we thought

Air Head - AI-generated video image by shy kids using OpenAI Sora
Air Head - AI-generated video image by shy kids using OpenAI Sora (Image credit: OpenAI / shy kids)

A man with a balloon for a head is somehow not the weirdest thing you'll see today thanks to a series of experimental video clips made by seven artists using OpenAI's Sora generative video creation platform.

Unlike OpenAI's ChatGPT AI chatbot and the DALL-E image generation platform, the company's text-to-video tool still isn't publicly available. However, on Monday, OpenAI revealed it had given Sora access to "visual artists, designers, creative directors, and filmmakers" and revealed their efforts in a "first impressions" blog post.

While all of the films ranging in length from 20 seconds to a minute-and-a-half are visually stunning, most are what you might describe as abstract. OpenAI's Artist In Residence Alex Reben's 20-second film is an exploration of what could very well be some of his sculptures (or at least concepts for them), and creative director Josephine Miller's video depicts models melded with what looks like translucent stained glass.

Not all the videos are so esoteric.

OpenAI Sora AI-generated video image by Don Allen Stevenson III

OpenAI Sora AI-generated video image by Don Allen Stevenson III (Image credit: OpenAI sora / Don Allen Stevenson III)

If we had to give out an award for most entertaining, it might be multimedia production company shy kids' "Air Head". It's an on-the-nose short film about a man whose head is a hot-air-filled yellow balloon. It might remind you of an AI-twisted version of the classic film, The Red Balloon, although only if you expected the boy to grow up and marry the red balloon and...never mind.

Sora's ability to convincingly merge the fantastical balloon head with what looks like a human body and a realistic environment is stunning. As shy kids' Walter Woodman noted, “As great as Sora is at generating things that appear real, what excites us is its ability to make things that are totally surreal." And yes, it's a funny and extremely surreal little movie.

But wait, it gets stranger.

The other video that will have you waking up in the middle of the night is digital artist Don Allen Stevenson III's "Beyond Our Reality," which is like a twisted National Geographic nature film depicting never-before-seen animal mergings like the Girafflamingo, flying pigs, and the Eel Cat. Each one looks as if a mad scientist grabbed disparate animals, carved them up, and then perfectly melded them to create these new chimeras.

OpenAI and the artists never detail the prompts used to generate the videos, nor the effort it took to get from the idea to the final video. Did they all simply type in a paragraph describing the scene, style, and level of reality and hit enter, or was this an iterative process that somehow got them to the point where the man's balloon head somehow perfectly met his shoulders or the Bunny Armadillo transformed from grotesque to the final, cute product?

That OpenAI has invited creatives to take Sora for a test run is not surprising. It's their livelihoods in art, film, and animation that are most at risk from Sora's already impressive capabilities. Most seem convinced it's a tool that can help them more quickly develop finished commercial products.

"The ability to rapidly conceptualize at such a high level of quality is not only challenging my creative process but also helping me evolve in storytelling. It's enabling me to translate my imagination with fewer technical constraints," said Josephine Miller in the blog post.

Go watch the clips but don't blame us if you wake up in the middle of the night screaming.

You might also like

TOPICS
Lance Ulanoff
Editor At Large

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC. 

Read more
Sora-generated image
What is OpenAI's Sora? The text-to-video tool explained and how you can use it
YouTube Veo 2
Look out, AI video could soon flood YouTube Shorts
Pika 2.0
Pika challenges OpenAI and Sora with new AI video generator features
AI-generated image of an android standing in front of a circuit board background with a giant padlock in the middle
We’re locked inside a creative bubble, will AI burst it or throw away the key?
DALL-E 3
I tried ChatGPT's Dall-E 3 image generator and these 5 tips will help you get the most from your AI creations
Luma Labs Ray 2
This AI video generator can make a banana typing look realistic – and might challenge Sora
Latest in Artificial Intelligence
A super close up image of the Google Gemini app in the Play Store
It's official: Google Assistant will be retired for phones this year, with Gemini taking over
Super Mario Odyssey
ChatGPT is the ultimate gaming tool - here's 4 ways you can use AI to help with your next playthrough
Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers remarks before the start of an Apple event at Apple headquarters on September 09, 2024 in Cupertino, California. Apple held an event to showcase the new iPhone 16, Airpods and Apple Watch models. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The big Siri Apple Intelligence delay proves that maybe we really don't know Apple at all
AI writer
Coding AI tells developer to write it himself
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max REVIEW
Apple Intelligence is a fever dream that I bet Apple wishes we could all forget about
DeepSeek on an iPhone
OpenAI calls on US government to ban DeepSeek, calling it ‘state-subsidized’ and ‘state-controlled’
Latest in News
A super close up image of the Google Gemini app in the Play Store
It's official: Google Assistant will be retired for phones this year, with Gemini taking over
Quordle on a smartphone held in a hand
Quordle hints and answers for Sunday, March 16 (game #1147)
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, March 16 (game #378)
NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, March 16 (game #644)
Three iPhone 16 handsets on show
Apple could launch an iPhone 17 Ultra this year – but we've heard these rumors before
Super Mario Odyssey
ChatGPT is the ultimate gaming tool - here's 4 ways you can use AI to help with your next playthrough