A group appears to have leaked access to Sora, OpenAI’s video generator, in protest of what it’s calling duplicity and “art washing” on OpenAI’s part.

On Tuesday, the group published a project on the AI dev platform Hugging Face seemingly connected to OpenAI’s Sora API, which isn’t yet publicly available. Using their authentication tokens — presumably from an early access system — the group created a frontend that lets users generate videos with Sora.

Why I think it's real This uses the OpenAI Sora API endpoint to create and download videos with hardcoded request headers and cookies from the Hugging Face space environment config

— Tibor Blaho (@btibor91) 26 November 2024

Through the group’s frontend, any user can generate 10-second videos up to 1080p resolution by typing a short text description. When TechCrunch tried, the queue was quite long — but several users on X managed to upload samples, most of which bore OpenAI’s distinctive visual watermark.

As of 12:01 p.m. Eastern, the frontend was no longer working. We’d venture to guess that OpenAI and/or Hugging Face revoked access.

This is what the group says; after three hours, OpenAI shut down Sora's early access temporarily for all artists.

Try it here: https://t.co/gnnkoj0jc2

If Sora, seems like an optimized version. Generates up to 1080 10-second clips.

Duplicate the space (if it works – my test didn't!). 
One example: pic.twitter.com/npphRJgyrd
 
— Kol Tregaskes (@koltregaskes) November 26, 2024

So why did the group do this? It claims that OpenAI is pressuring Sora's early testers, including red teamers and creative partners, to spin a positive narrative around Sora and failing to fairly compensate them for their work.

"Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback and experimental work for the [Sora early access] program for a $150B valued [sic] company," the group, which calls itself "Sora PR Puppets," wrote in a post attached to the frontend. "This early access program appears to be less about creative expression and critique, and more about PR and advertisement."

The group never declared who its members are. During the day, it started naming a few in an attachment on Hugging Face — and a separate petition.
 
Confirmed: OpenAI Sora really has been leaked https://t.co/Vh1zzsKgPT pic.twitter.com/mAN1Z4vGsN
November 26, 2024

The group also accuses OpenAI of misleading the public about what Sora can do by holding early access users tight on a leash. According to the group, every output from Sora has to be approved by OpenAI before it is distributed broadly and only a few creators in the program will be chosen to have their Sora-created works screened.

We are not opposed to the use of AI technology as an artistic tool-if we were, we wouldn't be here," the group stated. "What we don't agree with is how this artist program has been rolled out and how the tool is shaping up before a possible public release.". We are sharing this to the world in the hopes that OpenAI becomes more open, more artist friendly and supports the arts beyond PR stunts.”

More Sora: pic.twitter.com/8DRz1VTY7h

— Kol Tregaskes (@koltregaskes) November 26, 2024

In a statement, an OpenAI spokesperson said that Sora remains in a “research preview,” and that the company’s “working to balance creativity with robust safety measures for broader use.”

"Hundreds of artists in our alpha have shaped Sora's development, helping prioritize new features and safeguards," said the spokesperson. "Participation is voluntary, with no obligation to provide feedback or use the tool. We've been excited to offer these artists free access and will continue supporting them through grants, events, and other programs. We believe AI can be a powerful creative tool and are committed to making Sora both useful and safe."

The spokesperson continued saying artists "have no obligations" to OpenAI except "responsibly" using Sora, and not publishing any confidential information while Sora remains under development. They also failed to explain what is responsible use, nor did they elaborate which information OpenAI considers as confidential.

OMG OpenAI Sora has been leaked!
Free to use now on Huggingface, link in comment

It can be closed at any time, try now! It can output 1080P and up to 10s video! And the results are stunning!
9 Examples: pic.twitter.com/rIJJv5TQTo
— el.cine (@EHuanglu) November 26, 2024

Since it launched in the spring, Sora has experienced some technical mishaps as competitors in the video generation space feverishly work to overtake it. Not helping matters, one of the co-leads on Sora, Tim Brooks, left OpenAI for Google in early October.

According to a recent Reddit AMA, OpenAI chief product officer Kevin Weil said Sora was being held back by the "need to perfect the model, get safety/impersonation/other things right, and scale compute." The Information says the original system, revealed in February, took more than 10 minutes of processing time to make a one-minute video clip.

Early versions of Sora also lacked consistency. In a video, filmmaker Patrick Cederberg had to make hundreds of clips before finally getting a usable one since the model could not hold the styles, objects, and characters in videos.

Here is the best one. pic.twitter.com/ecqnf6j88e

— Adnan Ahmad (@BEAST_OFFICIIAL) November 26, 2024

The leaked Sora appears to be a faster, "turbo" variant, based on code uncovered by X users. Code also suggests style controls and limited customization options.

According to The Information, OpenAI has been training Sora on millions of hours of high-quality clips covering a range of styles and subjects to improve the quality of its generated videos.

Outside of technical barriers, OpenAI has given up coveted partnership real estate in the past few months. In September, Runway inked a deal with Lionsgate, the studio behind "John Wick," to train a custom video model on Lionsgate's movie catalog. About a week later, Stability, which is building its own suite of video generation models, tapped "Avatar" director James Cameron to its board.

Last Sora video for now, page looks dead: pic.twitter.com/dGCJgyGEzJ

— Kol Tregaskes (@koltregaskes) November 26, 2024

OpenAI reportedly met with film makers and studios in Hollywood earlier this year to demo Sora; former CTO Mira Murati attended Cannes. The company hasn't announced a major production house collaboration yet.