‘Artists should have a choice.’ WME opts clients out of Sora update as AI anxiety deepens

As anxieties among Hollywood talent increase surrounding artificial intelligence, Beverly Hills talent agency WME is drawing a line on behalf of its clients.

WME told San Francisco-based OpenAI that it is opting all of its clients out of the latest update to Sora, the AI startup’s text-to-video tool. The decision essentially puts OpenAI on notice that it’s not authorizing the company to use their clients’ likenesses or images in the latest update of the video-sharing app.

The newest version of Sora adds sound effects and dialogue to videos, depicting Olympic gymnastic routines, scuba diving and other activities. The tool also allows people to upload a video of a human and put them into different Sora-generated environments, in a feature called “cameos.”

“Our position is that artists should have a choice in how they show up in the world and how their likeness is used and we have notified OpenAI that all WME clients be opted out of the latest Sora AI update, regardless of whether IP rights holders have opted out IP our clients are associated with,” wrote Chris Jacquemin, WME’s head of digital strategy, in a note sent to agents Wednesday.

Hollywood is grappling with the innovations in AI, which is expected to create more efficiency in production but disrupt the jobs of visual effects artists, actors, writers and other talent. Last week, actors and their guild SAG-AFTRA were in an uproar over a digital character, Tilly Norwood, which was created with AI.

Norwood’s creator told Broadcast International she wanted the AI creation to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman. That didn’t sit well with SAG-AFTRA, which alleged Norwood was trained on the work of “countless professional performers” without compensation or permission.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on WME’s decision.

In a Sept. 30 blog post announcing the Sora update, the company said that users are in control of their likeness through cameos.

“Only you decide who can use your cameo, and you can revoke access or remove any video that includes it at any time,” OpenAI said. “Videos containing cameos of you, including drafts created by other people, are viewable by you at any time.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that prior to the Sora update, OpenAI had contacted talent agencies and studios, letting them know IP holders “would have to explicitly ask OpenAI not to include their copyright material in videos the tool creates.”

The Sora update received pushback from some Hollywood insiders. Days after WME sent its note to agents, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman wrote in a Friday blog post that the AI company will be giving rights holders “more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls.”

He said that a lot of rights holders are excited for this new “interactive fan fiction” but “want the ability to specify how their characters can be used (including not at all).” Altman said that he wants to apply the same standard to everyone and let rights holders decide how to proceed.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what the more granular controls would entail.

“There may be some edge cases of generations that get through that shouldn’t, and getting our stack to work well will take some iteration,” Altman wrote in his blog post.

Altman also said that the company plans to make money from video generation and share that revenue with rights holders who want their characters generated by users.

“The exact model will take some trial and error to figure out, but we plan to start very soon,” Altman wrote.

Hollywood talent agencies CAA, UTA and Gersh did not immediately return a request for comment on their agencies’ stance on Sora’s latest update.

Tech companies have argued that they should be able to train their AI models on content available online and bring up relevant information under the “fair use” doctrine, which allows for the limited reproduction of content without permission from the copyright holder.

Some studios such as Lionsgate have chosen to partner with AI companies to use tools in areas like storyboarding. Others, including Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal, have sued AI businesses for copyright infringement.