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OpenAI’s Sora video generator is launching for ChatGPT Pro and Plus subscribers — but not in the EU | TechCrunch

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OpenAI’s Sora video generator is launching for ChatGPT Pro and Plus subscribers — but not in the EU | TechCrunch

Subscribers to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro and Plus plans will get access to Sora, OpenAI’s video generator, starting today — but only if they live in certain countries.

During a livestream Monday afternoon, OpenAI revealed key information about Sora, including technical details. The version launching today, called Sora Turbo, can generate clips between 5 seconds and 20 seconds in length in a range of different aspect ratios and resolutions.

“This early version of Sora will make mistakes — it’s not perfect, but it’s already at the point where we think it’s going to be really useful for augmenting human creativity,” said Will Peebles, a member of OpenAI’s technical staff and a research lead on Sora, during the livestream. “We can’t wait to see what the world is going to make with Sora.”

According to video blogger Marques Brownlee, who got an early preview of Sora, the system can create multiple variations of video clips from a text prompt or image and edit existing videos via a Re-mix tool. A Storyboard interface lets users create sequences of videos; a Blend tool takes two videos and creates a new one that preserves elements of both; and Loop and Re-cut options allow creators to further tweak and edit their videos and scenes.

Sora was having major capacity issues as of early Monday evening, however.

Credits are required to generate videos with Sora, with the amount varying depending on the resolution and duration. ChatGPT Plus and Pro plans provide between 1,000 and 10,000 credits, which reset monthly at midnight sans rollovers.

480p videos generated with Sora cost 20 to 150 credits, 720p videos cost 30 to 540 credits, and 1080p videos cost 100 to 2,000 credits. Pricing gets a bit convoluted beyond that.

ChatGPT Plus plans include 1,000 credits for up to 50 “priority videos” (that is, videos that generate quickly) at 720p and 5 seconds, while Pro plans include 10,000 credits for up to 500 priority videos at 1080p and 20 seconds. Pro also includes unlimited “relaxed” — i.e., low-priority — videos without watermarks. By default, Sora videos are watermarked with a visual indicator in the lower-right-hand corner.

Something to note: By default, OpenAI trains on new Sora videos. Disabling this requires clicking on the profile icon on the top-right of the Sora homepage, selecting Settings > Data controls, and toggling off “Improve the model for everyone.”

And Sora isn’t available in the EU, at least to start. A newly published help page on OpenAI’s website listing the supported territories for Sora “on web and mobile” omits EU countries and the UK. On the page, OpenAI notes that accessing Sora outside the regions listed may result in an account ban or suspension.

“We’re going to try our hardest to be able to launch [in Europe], but we don’t have any timing to share yet,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during the livestream. “And there are some other countries that we’re not able to operate in.”

It’s not the first time OpenAI has skipped over EU countries for an initial product launch. This summer, when the company began rolling out Advanced Voice Mode, its human-like conversational feature for ChatGPT, EU users were left out of the early waves.

In a statement provided to TechRadar this fall, OpenAI attributed the Advanced Voice Mode delay to the “additional external reviews” required by some territories. “This is a common practice to ensure [our] feature aligns with local requirements,” a spokesperson told the publication at the time. “These [reviews] can take a little time.”

Advanced Voice Mode arrived for most EU customers in October.

Other tech companies working on AI models and products, including Meta and Microsoft, have also been forced to push back AI product releases in the EU due to the bloc’s complex web of data privacy regulations. Meta has been particularly vocal about compliance requirements it sees as onerous, earlier this year endorsing an open letter calling for “a modern interpretation” of European privacy laws that doesn’t “reject [AI] progress.”

Sora’s debut comes after a group leaked access to the video generator in protest of what they called duplicity and “art washing” on OpenAI’s part. The group claimed that OpenAI pressured Sora’s early testers, including red teamers and creative partners, to spin a positive narrative around Sora and failed to fairly compensate them for their work.

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