Technology is moving quickly. And the word on the street is that our friends from the United States – namely OpenAI – are about to unleash a product that has the potential to revolutionise the field of video production. It’s called Sora, an AI video tool which is expected to go on general release very soon.
For those of you who need reminding, OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence (AI) research organisation. It was founded in December 2015, to a reasonable amount of fanfare, and they have their headquarters in San Francisco, California.
A number of well-known tech individuals pledged their financial support, which amassed a reported $1bn to fund the project, since when one of their most high profile creations has been ChatGPT. Their chief executive is 39-year-old American entrepreneur and investor Sam Altman.
As for their latest invention, Sora has been described as enabling more sophisticated visual storytelling. It is easier to use than all current high-tech video production tools and does not require a huge amount of technical knowledge to operate. Therefore, it significantly lowers the barriers to entry, while accelerating the process of creativity.
Sora, through its capacity to automate, enhances various aspects of video production, from editing to special effects. It can change the landscape in several ways and will completely democratise video production.
And here’s the great news: By simplifying complex processes, this will allow individuals and small companies to create high-quality videos. Previously, such quality could only be achieved by large studios with substantial resources.
This latest development completely opens up opportunities for more diverse stories and perspectives to be shared with a global audience. Video production appears set to increase dramatically, as the process becomes more efficient, easier and more accessible to members of the general public.
The potential is there for creativity to thrive and expand. Who says AI is a bad thing? Tasks that would typically require hours of manual work, such as colour correction, cutting, and assembling footage, will now be done much faster with the assistance of AI.
This will not only speed-up the production cycle but also allows greater experimentation, without the worry of time-consuming revisions. According to OpenAI, they describe Sora as ‘an AI model that can create realistic and imaginative scenes from text instructions.’
But there is a potential downside to all of this. As AI tools, such as Sora become more accessible and simpler to operate, the question of authenticity will come sharply into focus. More and more ‘Fake videos’ may suddenly enter cyberspace.
And will the content genuinely reflect the creator’s intention, perspective and voice – without being overly manipulated by AI. Although Sora is poised to transform video production, there will be a desperate need for content to maintain a sense of authenticity.
This will be a huge concern in an age when video production becomes easier and faster to create stunning output. Hopefully, there will be video creators who can skilfully blend AI capabilities with total authenticity to offer audiences the best of both worlds.
