Sora hits 1M downloads in 5 days, beats ChatGPT's record
What's the story
OpenAI's latest video-generation tool, Sora, has crossed one million downloads within five days of its late September launch. The news was confirmed by Bill Peebles, head of Sora at OpenAI. He said the app achieved this milestone even faster than ChatGPT, the company's popular AI chatbot.
App performance
Sora 2 tops App Store rankings
OpenAI's short-video app, Sora 2, also climbed to the top of Apple App Store rankings on October 3, just three days after its launch. This was despite being available on an invite-only basis in the US and Canada. According to analytics firm Appfigures, Sora was downloaded 56,000 times on its launch day (September 30) and within two days had been installed by over 164,000 users.
Controversy
Controversy over copyright infringement
The Sora app has also been embroiled in controversy over a deluge of videos featuring copyrighted characters from popular entertainment franchises. These include Nintendo's Mario and Pikachu, Disney's properties, and animated series like SpongeBob SquarePants and South Park. In response to this backlash, OpenAI announced plans to introduce new controls in Sora that would give rightsholders more control over how their characters are used.
Revenue sharing
Revenue sharing with rightsholders
OpenAI also plans to share revenue with rightsholders who allow their characters to be generated by users. "People are generating much more than we expected per user, and a lot of videos are being generated for very small audiences," said Altman in a blog post. He added, "We are going to try sharing some of this revenue with rightsholders who want their characters generated by users."
App updates
Fine-grained tools for IP rightsholders
OpenAI is also working on giving IP rightsholders fine-grained tools to decide how or whether their characters can be generated by users. The company has promised more features and fixes to overmoderation in the app. However, as of now, Sora is only available in the US and Canada where it continues to dominate Apple's App Store rankings.