Watchdog group Public Citizen demands OpenAI withdraw AI video app Sora over deepfake dangers

By BARBARA ORTUTAY and MATT O BRIEN AP Apparatus Writers The tech industry is moving fast and current things again and this time it is humanity s shared reality and control of our likeness before and after death thanks to artificial intelligence image-generation platforms like OpenAI s Sora The typical Sora video made on OpenAI s app and spread onto TikTok Instagram X and Facebook is designed to be amusing enough for you to click and share It could be Queen Elizabeth II rapping or something more ordinary and believable One popular Sora genre is fake doorbell camera footage capturing something slightly uncanny say a boa constrictor on the porch or an alligator approaching an unfazed child and ends with a mild shock like a grandma shouting as she beats the animal with a broom But a growing chorus of advocacy groups academics and experts are raising alarms about the dangers of letting people create AI videos on just about anything they can type into a prompt leading to the proliferation of nonconsensual images and realistic deepfakes in a sea of less harmful AI slop OpenAI has cracked down on AI creations of constituents figures among them Michael Jackson Martin Luther King Jr and Mister Rogers doing outlandish things but only after an outcry from family estates and an actors union The nonprofit Inhabitants Citizen is now demanding OpenAI withdraw Sora from the general writing in a Tuesday letter to the company and CEO Sam Altman that the app s hasty release so that it could launch ahead of competitors shows a consistent and dangerous pattern of OpenAI rushing to region with a product that is either inherently unsafe or lacking in needed guardrails Sora the letter says shows a reckless disregard for product safety as well as people s rights to their own likeness and the stability of democracy The group also sent the letter to the U S Congress OpenAI didn t right away respond to a request for comment Tuesday Our biggest concern is the prospective threat to democracy stated Community Citizen tech strategy advocate J B Branch in an interview I think we re entering a world in which people can t really trust what they see And we re starting to see strategies in politics where the first image the first video that gets circulated is what people remember Branch author of Tuesday s letter also sees broader concerns to people s privacy that disproportionately impact vulnerable populations online OpenAI blocks nudity but Branch stated that women are seeing themselves being harassed online in other options such as with fetishized niche content that makes it through the apps restrictions The news outlet Media on Friday communicated on a flood of Sora-made videos of women being strangled OpenAI introduced its new Sora app on iPhones more than a month ago It launched on Android phones last week in the U S Canada and several Asian countries including Japan and South Korea Much of the strongest pushback has come from Hollywood and other entertainment interests including the Japanese manga industry OpenAI declared its first big changes just days after the release saying overmoderation is super frustrating for users but that it s crucial to be conservative while the world is still adjusting to this new device That was followed by publicly publicized agreements with Martin Luther King Jr s family on Oct preventing disrespectful depictions of the civil rights leader while the company worked on better safeguards and another on Oct with Urgent Bad actor Bryan Cranston the SAG-AFTRA union and talent agencies That s all well and good if you re famous Branch mentioned It s sort of just a pattern that OpenAI has where they re willing to respond to the outrage of a very small population They re willing to release something and apologize afterwards But a lot of these issues are design choices that they can make before releasing Related Articles How Gary Sinise is helping the nonprofit CreatiVets build a place to go when the PTSD hits Wall Street is mixed as Nvidia gets back to falling Surviving burnout job fears and more tips from career coaches ByHeart recalls all baby formula sold nationwide as infant botulism outbreak grows Air travelers face frustration as FAA increases flight cuts during the establishment shutdown OpenAI has faced similar complaints about its flagship product ChatGPT Seven new lawsuits filed last week in California courts claim the chatbot drove people to suicide and harmful delusions even when they had no prior mental healthcare issues Filed on behalf of six adults and one teenager by the Social Media Casualties Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project the lawsuits claim that OpenAI knowingly issued GPT- o prematurely last year despite internal warnings that it was dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative Four of the casualties died by suicide Community Citizen was not involved in the lawsuits but Branch disclosed he sees parallels in Sora s hasty release He explained they re putting the pedal to the floor without regard for harms Much of this seems foreseeable But they d rather get a product out there get people downloading it get people who are addicted to it rather than doing the right thing and stress-testing these things beforehand and worrying about the plight of everyday users OpenAI spent last week responding to complaints from a Japanese exchange association representing famed animators like Hayao Miyazaki s Studio Ghibli and video battle makers like Bandai Namco and Square Enix OpenAI disclosed multiple anime fans want to interact with their favorite characters but the company has also set guardrails in place to prevent well-known characters from being generated without the consent of the people who own the copyrights We re engaging directly with studios and rightsholders listening to feedback and learning from how people are using Sora including in Japan where cultural and creative industries are deeply valued OpenAI explained in a announcement about the business group s letter last week