OpenAI Sora ‘could end studio production’
February 23, 2024
Tyler Perry, the US film and TV entrepreneur, has paused the $800 million expansion of his Atlanta studio complex after the release of OpenAI’s video generator Sora and warned that “a lot of jobs” in the film industry will be lost to artificial intelligence.
Perry said he had been in the process of adding 12 sound stages to his studio but has halted those plans indefinitely after he saw demonstrations of Sora and its “shocking” capabilities; the application turns text into moving images. “All of that is currently and indefinitely on hold because of Sora and what I’m seeing,” Perry said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I had gotten word over the last year or so that this was coming, but I had no idea until I saw recently the demonstrations of what it’s able to do. It’s shocking to me,” as reported in The Guardian.
The AI tool was launched on February 15th – with limited access to a few researchers and video creators – and caused widespread astonishment with its ability to produce realistic footage a minute long from simple text prompts.
Perry, whose successes include the Madea film series as well as an ongoing Netflix deal, said Sora’s achievements meant he would no longer have to travel to locations or build a set: “I can sit in an office and do this with a computer, which is shocking to me.”
Demonstrations released by developer of the groundbreaking ChatGPT chatbot, show scenes in response to prompts such as asking for a shot of people walking through “Tokyo city”.
Concerns over the impact of AI on jobs were a feature in recent strikes by Hollywood actors and writers, with the peace deals that ended those disputes both featuring guardrails on using the technology.