In one of my previous posts, I predicted that people would be able to create full-length, live action or animated films on their laptop at home.
Yesterday, Sam Altman of OpenAI introduced Sora to the world. Sora is OpenAi's text-to-video creator. This is not the AI video generator of a year ago, which produced shorts like the one of Will Smith Eating Spaghetti, wherein the hands and facial features became grossly distorted. Click on the link and look at some of the videos there.
This platform creates videos that are nothing short of breath-taking. The hands (usually the Achilles heel of AI text to image) are amazing, as are the features. The shadows, textures and depth are dazzling. Is it perfect? No. Not yet.
Does it have limitations? Yes. Right now, the videos are limited to about one minute.
But is it a bellwether of things to come? Definitely. I can easily predict that within a year or two, that singular minute, will grow to hours. Not only that, but I can see videos created by prompts like the following:
"Sora we're going to make a 90 minute live action film about people living completely immersed in VR for long periods of time. However, the antagonist is going to use AI to sabotage warehouses filled with those people. Here is my screenplay. Please review, analyze and make suggestions that will give it the dramatic style of Game of Thrones. As far as characters go, I would like the Main Character to have the facial features of Gal Gadot and the body of a Margot Robbie. Her love interest will look like 25 year-old Chris Hemsworth and will have the speed and martial arts skills of Bruce Lee. The bad guy will look like a cross between Liam Neeson and Alan Richter's character Severus Snape..." That's right. You'll be able to write a screenplay, have AI modify and improve it into styles ranging from George R R Martin (Game of Thrones) to Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). You'll then be able to design the sets, locations, weather etc. to fit the mood and finally, you'll be able to create custom-designed people, to populate your movie. This will all happen. But for now? Commercials, Social Media & Content Marketing etc. are at your fingertips, just waiting for you to create literally anything you can imagine. That's not a bad start. Let's see how long it takes for OpenAI and others to catch up with my vision for the future...
Frederick Shelton is the CEO of Shelton & Steele, a national legal recruiting and consulting firm. He can be reached at fs@sheltonsteele.com
