A group of early testers has posted an unauthorized leak of OpenAI’s text-to-video generator, Sora, online, citing complaints of “unpaid work” and exploitation of creative professionals.

The leak, which appeared on AI platform Hugging Face under the username PR-Puppets, has sparked a debate about technological innovation, ethical work practices and intellectual property rights, with around 380 verified artists and creators from around the world already signing the agreement. accompanying petition.

Access to this early version of Sora was closed by OpenAI after three hours, however, many individuals were able to try it out and generate AI videos that are now shared online, including on X (formerly Twitter). One Hugging Face user has archived over 80 videos and provided download links to the videos and their prompts.

Developed by OpenAI, which recently went for-profit, this AI “diffusion model” can turn text prompts into high-fidelity videos of up to one minute. The model uses techniques from various artificial intelligence systems and offers accurate text alignment with the image.

According to discussions on Hugging Face, Sora is described as a “mesmerizing display of technical prowess”, praised for its ability to create “visually coherent stories” that represent a major milestone in generative artificial intelligence.

The leak was orchestrated by a group of beta testers, many of whom are visual artists and filmmakers. The group released the model under the name Sora PR Puppets along with an open letter addressed to “Corporate AI Overlords”.

They allege that OpenAI, which is currently valued at over $150 billion, exploited their workforce by relying on unpaid or undercompensated contributions to refine Sora.

“It wasn’t just about unpaid work – it was about respect,” noted one anonymous contributor to Hugging Face. “OpenAI treated our input as raw material, not creative expertise. It’s not collaboration, it’s mining.”

The group claims that artists were encouraged to provide feedback and experimental work without fair compensation, while OpenAI sought to gain significant public relations and marketing value from their efforts.

“We gained access to Sora with the promise of being early testers, red teamers and creative partners. However, we believe we are instead being lured into ‘artistic laundry’ to tell the world that Sora is a useful tool for artists,” the open letter said .

The group also criticized the company’s strict control over the sharing of content generated by Sora, claiming that the early access program was more about PR and advertising than true creative collaboration, stating that “every output must be approved by the OpenAI team before sharing”.

Not all commenters were supportive of Hugging Face, however. One member wrote: “Are you crazy that OpenAI didn’t compensate you? Even though they give you free open access to their video model to try and test? You get people to spend $1000+ on other video AI platforms to achieve half better results than what SORA can do.

OpenAI has previously faced scrutiny over its use of copyrighted material to train AI models, often citing fair use as a defense. While the company says Sora’s training data includes licensed and public datasets, it was coy about providing specifics.

This lack of transparency, coupled with ongoing lawsuits from creators and publishers, underscores the tension between technological progress and intellectual property concerns.

But the leak potentially undermines those efforts. As commenters on Hugging Face pointed out: “A leak of this magnitude undermines OpenAI’s efforts to enforce ethical safeguards. It puts unchecked power in the hands of anyone with access.”

“Personally, I’m in awe of the artists who got the courage to say no to art washing and unpaid art work today. Tagging all the artists involved who exposed this tool for everyone to try,” digital art advisor Fanny Lakoubay posted on X (formerly Twitter). while naming the artists involved in the protest.

One of the beta testers, an artist collective named aurèce vettier, also used X to post “artists are not your unpaid R&D”, linking to the Hugging Face site.