Dear Lords of Corporate AI,
We received access to Sora with the promise of being early testers, red team members, and creative partners. However, we believe we are being lured into an art washing operation to convince the world that Sora is a useful tool for artists.
Artists are not an unpaid R&D team
We are not your free bug testers, PR puppets, training data, or validation tokens.
Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback, and experimental work for a program of a $150 billion company. While hundreds of artists contribute for free, only a select few will be chosen through a competition to see their Sora-created films screened, providing minimal compensation compared to the enormous PR and marketing value gained from them. OpenAI.
Let’s denormalize billionaire brands that exploit artists for their R&D and PR
Additionally, each creation must be approved by the OpenAI team before sharing. This early access program seems less about creative expression and criticism, and more about PR and publicity.
We are publishing this tool to give everyone the opportunity to experience what has been offered to around 300 artists: free and unlimited access to this tool.
We are not against using AI technology as an artistic tool (if we were, we probably wouldn't have been invited to this program). What we are contesting is the way in which this artistic program was deployed and how the tool is shaping up before a possible public release. We're sharing this with the world in hopes that OpenAI becomes more open, more artist-friendly, and supports the arts beyond just publicity stunts.
