Yesterday OpenAI shut-down access to its not-yet-public video-creation system Sora after a small-scale protest action took place. The un-released AI tool — which makes videos from text input got exposed by dissatisfied early testers
The company picked hundreds of creative pros to test-drive Sora for free but this move didnt go as planned. About twenty artists (who got early-hands on the system) decided to leak access details; they felt OpenAI was using them as PR-friendly faces without proper pay-back
The selected creators pointed out a big issue: OpenAI seemed more focused on building its public image than giving fair treatment to its test-group members. These artists believed they were doing real work that deserved compensation but instead got treated like un-paid marketing helpers
The whole situation shows how tech companies and creative pros sometimes dont see eye-to-eye on fair partnership terms. While OpenAI wanted free testing help the artists expected more give-and-take in their relationship with this cutting-edge tech maker