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OpenAI to Give Content Owners Control Over Sora AI Videos, Plans Revenue Sharing Model

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OpenAI is rolling out new tools to give content owners greater control over how their intellectual property is used in Sora, its recently launched AI video-generation app, and plans to introduce a revenue-sharing system for creators who opt in.

In a blog post on Friday, CEO Sam Altman said OpenAI will soon provide “more granular control over the generation of characters” within Sora, enabling rights holders such as film and television studios to decide how their characters can appear—or to block them entirely.

The move comes amid intensifying scrutiny of AI-generated content and growing concern across Hollywood and the creative industries about copyright infringement and the unauthorized replication of proprietary characters and likenesses.

Sora, launched this week as a standalone app in the United States and Canada, allows users to generate and share AI-created videos up to 10 seconds long. Its social-media-style interface quickly gained traction, with users producing clips based on both original and copyrighted material.

Altman acknowledged that the app’s rapid popularity—and the sheer volume of video creation—has outpaced expectations, creating a need for clear rules and compensation mechanisms. “We’ll experiment with different approaches,” he wrote, adding that the revenue-sharing model would evolve through “trial and error” as OpenAI tests various systems within Sora before applying them to its broader suite of AI tools.

At least one major studio, Disney, has already opted out of allowing its characters to appear in Sora-generated videos, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Other studios are reportedly reviewing whether to participate under OpenAI’s forthcoming licensing framework.

The company’s initiative could mark a turning point in the relationship between AI firms and content owners, shifting from conflict to collaboration—if a viable monetization model can be found.

Backed by Microsoft, OpenAI’s expansion into multimodal AI via Sora places it in direct competition with Meta’s Vibes and Google’s text-to-video tools, as major tech firms race to define the future of synthetic media creation.

Still, the effort to give rights holders control over how their creations are used—and to share revenue from those uses—reflects a broader recognition that AI’s creative power must coexist with creator compensation and consent.

OpenAI Launches “Sora” — an AI Video App That Can Generate Clips from Copyrighted Material

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OpenAI has unveiled Sora, a new AI-powered video creation app that allows users to generate and share short videos — including those derived from copyrighted content — directly to a built-in social media-style feed. The app, which represents OpenAI’s most ambitious push yet into generative video, is expected to raise new tensions across the entertainment industry.

According to the company, copyright holders such as movie and television studios must actively opt out if they do not wish to have their content appear in the app’s video feed. OpenAI described this as a continuation of its previous opt-out policy used for AI image generation, where creators must explicitly request the exclusion of their work from model training or public feeds.

The move is already sparking debate in Hollywood. People familiar with the matter said that Disney has opted out, and other major studios are currently in talks with OpenAI over the implications of Sora’s copyright framework.

Earlier this year, OpenAI urged the Trump administration to formally classify the use of copyrighted material for AI training as “fair use” under U.S. law — a position it argued was essential for national competitiveness and security, warning that U.S. AI firms could fall behind Chinese rivals without legal clarity.

Beyond copyright issues, OpenAI said Sora includes robust safeguards to prevent the misuse of personal likenesses and public figures. Users cannot generate videos of other people unless those individuals upload an AI “liveness check” — a verification process requiring users to move their heads and recite random numbers — to confirm consent.

Sora videos can be up to 10 seconds long and feature a new “Cameo” function, allowing users to create lifelike digital doubles of themselves and insert them into AI-generated scenes. The company says these videos are intended for creative experimentation and entertainment, with built-in transparency markers indicating AI generation.

Market analysts view the Sora app as a direct challenge to existing short-video giants such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak noted that the platform’s combination of AI creativity and social-sharing features positions OpenAI “in the business of competing for attention and reshaping user behavior.”

As Hollywood, regulators, and AI companies continue to clash over intellectual property and deepfake laws, Sora’s launch could set a major precedent for how AI-generated audiovisual content will be treated under future copyright and media frameworks.

AI Video Startup Hedra Raises $32M in Series A Led by Andreessen Horowitz

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Hedra, a fast-growing AI startup specializing in lifelike video generation, has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Infrastructure fund. The round values the company at $200 million, according to a source familiar with the deal, and brings Hedra’s total funding to $43 million since its founding in 2021.

The fresh capital will be used to expand operations, triple its 20-person team, and scale adoption among marketers and creative professionals who are increasingly turning to AI-generated content.

What Makes Hedra Stand Out?

Hedra is entering a competitive space alongside players like OpenAI’s Sora and Runway’s Gen-2, but it aims to differentiate itself through its proprietary Character-3 foundation model — an AI that fuses text, image, and audio inputs to create realistic digital characters.

CEO Michael Lingelbach, a former stage actor, emphasized the company’s goal to overcome the “uncanny valley”, the unsettling effect caused by nearly lifelike avatars. “Getting over the uncanny valley of compelling performance is the hardest frontier in video,” he said, noting that Character-3 is designed to deliver emotionally resonant, human-like performances.

Industry Context:

The AI video sector is witnessing rapid innovation and investment, but concerns remain over:

  • Scalability, due to the high computational costs of rendering realistic avatars

  • The psychological discomfort triggered by avatars that are lifelike but not quite human

  • Ethical questions surrounding the use of synthetic voices and faces in marketing

Backers and Vision:

The round drew returning support from a16z Speedrun, Abstract, and Index Ventures, signaling strong confidence in Hedra’s long-term potential.

As businesses seek cost-effective, scalable ways to create content, Hedra’s technology could play a key role in branding, advertising, and even virtual influencer markets.