The maker of ChatGPT is now diving into AI-generated video.

Meet Sora—OpenAI's new text-to-video generator. The tool, which the San Francisco company unveiled Thursday, uses generative artificial intelligence to instantly create short videos based on written commands.

Sora isn't the first to demonstrate this kind of technology. But industry analysts point to the high quality of the tool's videos displayed so far, and note that its introduction marks a significant leap for both OpenAI and the future of text-to-video generation overall.

Still, as with all things in the rapidly-growing AI space today, such technology also raises fears about potential ethical and societal implications. Here's what you need to know.

WHAT IS SORA? CAN I USE IT YET?

Sora is a text-to-video generator—creating videos up to 60 seconds long based on written prompts using generative AI. The model can also generate video from an existing still image.

Generative AI is a branch of AI that can create something new. Examples include chatbots, like OpenAI's ChatGPT, and image-generators such as DALL-E and Midjourney. Getting an AI system to generate videos is newer and more challenging but relies on some of the same technology.

Sora isn't available for public use yet (OpenAI says it's engaging with policymakers and artists before officially releasing the tool) and there's a lot we still don't know. But since Thursday's announcement, the company has shared a handful of examples of Sora-generated videos to show off what it can do.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to ask social media users to send in prompt ideas. He later shared realistically-detailed videos that responded to prompts like "two golden retrievers podcasting on top of a mountain " and "a bicycle race on ocean with different animals as athletes riding the bicycles with drone camera view."

While Sora-generated videos are able to depict complex, incredibly-detailed scenes, OpenAI notes that there are still some weaknesses—including some spatial and cause-and-effect elements. For example, OpenAI adds on its website, "a person might take a bite out of a cookie, but afterward, the cookie may not have a bite mark."

ARE THERE OTHER AI-GENERATED VIDEO TOOLS OUT THERE TODAY?

OpenAI's Sora isn't the first of its kind. Google, Meta and the startup Runway ML are among the other companies to have demonstrated similar technology.

Still, industry analysts stress the apparent quality and and impressive length of Sora videos shared so far. Fred Havemeyer, head of U.S. AI and software research at Macquarie, said that Sora's launch marks a big step forward for the industry.

"Not only can you do longer videos, I understand up to 60 seconds, but also the videos being created look more normal and seem to actually respect physics and the real world more," Havemeyer said. "You're not getting as many 'uncanny valley' videos or fragments on the video feeds that look ... unnatural."

While there has been "tremendous progress" in AI-generated video over the last year—including Stable Video Diffusion's introduction last November—Forrester senior analyst Rowan Curran said such videos have required more "stitching together" for character and scene consistency.

The consistency and length of Sora's videos, however, represents "new opportunities for creatives to incorporate elements of AI-generated video into more traditional content, and now even to generate full-blown narrative videos from one or a few prompts," Curran told The Associated Press via email Friday.

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