Sora AI Video Generation Model Unveiled by OpenAI in 12 Days of Innovation

OpenAI has just dropped Sora, an AI-powered video generation tool, as part of their festive series titled "12 Days of OpenAI." This release underscores the company's leadership in AI video creation and provides creators worldwide with a tool to transform simple text prompts into vivid, dynamic, and imaginative videos. Here's the lowdown on what Sora brings to the table.

New Era in Video Creation

Sora is now at the fingertips of ChatGPT Pro subscribers, and let me tell you, it's outshining the competition. It's got the upper hand on Luma AI, Kling AI, and is giving Runway AI a run for its money. Sora delivers higher-resolution outputs, seamless motion transitions, and faster processing speeds, while supporting detailed scene customization from simple text prompts.

What Can Sora Do?

Text-to-Video Generation

‍Users input a prompt, and Sora generates a video clip up to 20 seconds long in resolutions reaching up to 1080p. A myriad of possibilities for content creators, from art to advertising. Prompt for the video below: "BLEND video".

Storyboard Functionality

This feature's a gem. The Storyboard mode, allows for the creation of sequences by setting keyframes with prompts or images. This tool mimics traditional video editing, where users can set the scene, action, and even transitions, which Sora then fills in with AI-generated content.

Inspiration Through Exploration

No Pro or Plus subscription? No problem. You can still visit Sora's feed to explore videos generated by others. Tons of inspiration just for you.

Remixing and Blending

‍You can remix existing videos, adjusting elements within them or blending two scenes together to create entirely new visuals.

Accessibility and Pricing of Sora

‍The model is accessible globally, with some exceptions like the UK and EU due to compliance with local regulations. In the meantime, for those regions we recommend exploring Runway AI image-to-video or Kling AI text-to-video generators.

As for Sora, ChatGPT Plus subscribers get 50 video generations per month, while Pro subscribers enjoy unlimited slow generations and up to 500 priority videos, the latter offering higher resolution and longer duration options.

The Technical Underpinnings

Visual patches

Sora utilizes "visual patches" as its fundamental unit, akin to tokens in language models but tailored for video. This approach allows for more accurate representation of motion and continuity in video.

For those who want more details, the process involves first compressing video data into a lower-dimensional latent space, where it is then broken down into spacetime patches — essentially chunks of both time and space from the video. These patches serve as tokens, much like text tokens in language models, enabling the model to handle video data of varying resolutions, durations, and aspect ratios.

The model, called Sora, is trained in this compressed space using a diffusion process. It predicts "clean" patches from noisy input, progressively refining video generation. The key innovation here is that transformers — already successful in tasks like language and image generation — can scale effectively for video generation as well. The quality of generated videos improves as training progresses and computational resources increase, demonstrating the power of this patch-based, transformer-driven approach for creating high-quality video content.

Recaptioning technique

OpenAI's recaptioning technique further enhances the model's ability to follow user instructions closely, making the generated videos more in line with the intended narrative or scene.

Safety and Ethical Considerations

OpenAI has introduced several safeguards. Firstly, before generating any video, Sora requires users to agree not to produce content involving minors, violence, explicit material, or copyrighted works without permission. Secondly, videos come with visible watermarks to identify AI generation, although Pro subscribers can remove these watermarks, the content retains metadata tracking its origin for accountability.

The User Experience

The user interface of Sora is intuitive, designed to blend the familiarity of traditional video editors with the magic of AI.

• Prompting: The floating prompt box allows users to describe their vision in detail, with options to choose aspect ratios, resolutions, and duration.
• Community: The explore feed acts as a communal space where users can learn from each other, remix videos, and share their creations.

While Sora can create stunning visuals, it's not without flaws. Physics simulations and complex actions over extended periods are areas where the model still struggles, highlighting the ongoing need for technological refinement.

A Tool for Tomorrow's Creators

As we continue through OpenAI's "12 Days of Innovation", Sora stands out as a tool that democratizes video production, empowering anyone with a vision to create, regardless of technical expertise. Let’s discover the stories we can craft together. What's your vision? Dive into video prompting ideas next →