IP Holders Have the Data To Work With Sora. They're Ignoring It.
Michael Jackson videos flood Sora. Kobe Bryant. Elvis. Bob Ross. Hollywood's response? Lawsuits and angry statements. But what if this AI surge is actually making their IP more valuable?
[Author’s Note: This week’s mailing is late due to some travel delays and personal commitments. There will a follow-up essay on Thursday or Friday.]
Sora is generating more activity around dead celebrities than any social platform ever has. So why is Hollywood threatening lawsuits instead of learning what that is worth? Why are they creating so much unnecessary uncertainty?
Hollywood uses its assets to bet on blockbuster films and shows. OpenAI’s Sora 2 and Google’s Veo 3 fragment that model into thousands of fan-made videos with tiny audiences. Millions of videos using blockbuster IP will drive the success of Sora, but no single video will.
Take celebrities: Painter Bob Ross and children’s television show host Mr. Rogers now flood Sora’s feed. So do videos of Kobe Bryant, Michael Jackson, Robin Williams, George Carlin, Malcolm X, and Elvis Presley, among others. Surviving family members of these celebrities recently have complained that they find the videos “depressing”, “hurtful” and “insensitive”.
In June, Stormtrooper videos flooded Google’s Veo 3 and social video. They went viral, then disappeared within a week. Disney’s silence—neither permission nor denial—created just enough ambiguity for users to experiment. Notably, Disney opted out of allowing its IP to appear in the Sora app.
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) issued a statement warning that “OpenAI needs to take immediate and decisive action to address this issue” and “well-established” copyright law “safeguards the rights of creators.”
Creative Artists Agency (CAA)—a leading Hollywood talent agency—recently argued “control, permission for use, and compensation were ‘a fundamental right’ of creative workers” and warned the misuse of new technologies poses “serious and harmful risks” that extend beyond the entertainment and media industries.
All three decisions raise the question: What exactly is the value of celebrity likenesses, films, TV shows and characters in this “new medium”?
Monetization
OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman wrote in a recent blog post that they do not yet have an answer for monetizing those videos: “People are generating much more than we expected per user, and a lot of videos are being generated for very small audiences.” That means no subscriptions at scale and no advertiser dollars. This means Hollywood cannot calculate how dead celebrities actually drive engagement and growth on Sora. Nobody knows what the IP is actually worth.
