OpenAI tool leaked by beta testers citing unpaid work

OpenAI’s unreleased Sora text-to-video tool was leaked on November 26 by a group of early testers and artists claiming exploitation during its development phase.

The group, named "PR-Puppets," made the tool briefly available on HuggingFace, an AI development platform, as an act of protest against what they described as unpaid labor and lack of recognition from OpenAI.

According to the group’s open letter, hundreds of artists contributed bug testing, feedback, and creative work, expecting collaboration and recognition.

However, they claim OpenAI used their efforts for “art washing,” with no compensation or acknowledgment.

“We believe that instead we are being lured into ‘art washing’ to tell the world that Sora is a useful tool for artists,” the letter stated.

OpenAI, currently valued at $157 billion, was accused of preventing contributors from benefiting financially despite their substantial role in Sora’s development.

The leaked version of Sora was accessible for a few hours before OpenAI intervened to remove it.

During this brief period, users tested its capabilities, with some sharing examples of hyper-realistic video content generated by the tool.

Film director Huang Lu shared a clip from the tool, commenting, “It’s impressive how well it handles arms and legs.”

Analysis of the leaked code revealed plans for a faster “turbo” variant and future customisation controls for video generation.

OpenAI first unveiled Sora in February, showcasing its ability to generate high-quality video from text prompts.

Reports indicate that Sora was trained on “hundreds of millions of hours” of video to improve its range and output quality.