AI videos are now easier to generate than ever. ChatGPT's parent company OpenAI officially unveiled its video generation tool, Sora AI, this week. The company has been developing a new version of the model, called Sora Turbo, for months now, finally bringing the product out of research preview and making it available to the public. Sora is available starting now in the US, but not in Europe or the UK.
With Sora's AI, ChatGPT users can create video clips entirely with generative AI. You can start by entering the usual text prompt, but you can also upload images and even other videos to guide the model. Sora Turbo is "significantly" faster and comes with several new upgrades, according to CEO Sam Altman who announced the news on Monday's 12 Days of OpenAI livestream.
There's a lot to unpack in Sora AI. Let's dive in.
This crime-fighting floof was generated using Sora AI. Source: OpenAI
How does Sora Turbo work?
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As with most AI image and video tools, you can enter a text prompt and the program will create short clips based on the ideas you described. With Sora, you can also upload photos and other videos to your prompts as reference material. You can also easily select the video's aspect ratio, resolution and duration, as well as how many variations you want the program to generate.
The results are anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds long with resolutions between 480 and 1080p. There are also other post-generation editing features like storyboard, remix and loop for more fine-tuning. If your account is public, all your text-based videos are eligible to be shared on Sora's community Explore page. You can change this by toggling off "Publish to explore" in your Sora profile settings. An OpenAI help page says you can turn off model training in the same place, but CNET couldn't confirm it was active yet.
Generated with Sora AI Source: OpenAI
Similar to OpenAI's image generator Dall-E 3, you'll need to have a paid plan to access Sora. ChatGPT Plus users (on the $20 per month plan) get 1,000 credits a month, 50 fast/priority generations and are limited to videos of 5 seconds at a max of 720p.
ChatGPT Pro, the newest, priciest tier available for power users for $200 per month, eases up on those limits. Pro users get unlimited relaxed generations, longer durations and higher resolution options -- and, notably, the ability to download videos without the company's watermark.
OpenAI said it will be more conservative in how it moderates content at Sora's launch -- that means it might be a little stricter with what prompts it allows you to generate or deny. In the livestream, OpenAI confirmed that you won't be able to generate videos of celebrities, politicians and other well-known public figures by name. You can check out the company's full terms of use for more information.