Skip to main content

OpenAI’s latest Sora video shows an elephant made of leaves

OpenAI left a lot of jaws on the floor last month when it shared the first footage made by Sora, its AI-powered text-to-video generator.

While not perfect, the quality was extraordinary and left many wondering about the kind of transformational impact that such technology will have on the creative industries, including Hollywood.

Recommended Videos

OpenAI has yet to release Sora to the public — that’s expected to happen later this year — but the company is happy to continue impressing everyone by dropping regular Sora-generated videos onto its social media feeds.

The latest one to land looks like a clip from a fantasy movie and was generated from the simple text prompt: “An elephant made of leaves running in the jungle.”

OpenAI keeps dropping more insane Sora videos

These are 100% AI generated

9 reality bending videos

1. Elephant made out of leaves pic.twitter.com/tPsHNGbFPS

— Linus Ekenstam (@LinusEkenstam) March 18, 2024

OpenAI said that Sora did all the work and that the video output was not modified in any way.

Of course, any video creation tool worth its salt has to be adept at cat videos. Sora passed with flying colors when fed with the text prompt: “An adorable kitten pirate riding a robot vacuum around the house.”

Asked to create “Niagara Falls with colorful paint,” Sora came up with this extraordinary footage.

And check out this amazing clip prompted by: “POV video of a bee as it dives through a beautiful field of flowers.”

The OpenAI team dropped more wild Sora videos.

100% AI (minus sound)🤯

9 new ones:

1. POV of Bee pic.twitter.com/RjjSm6kcEB

— Min Choi (@minchoi) March 14, 2024

Sora can build videos up to a minute long “while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s prompt,” OpenAI said when it unveiled the tool last month. The Microsoft-backed startup, which created a stir last year with its AI-powered ChatGPT chatbot, said it’s decided to share its research progress with Sora early “to learn from feedback and give the public a sense of what Al capabilities are on the horizon.”

It also said that it used publicly available data and licensed data to train Sora. The issue of how generative AI models are trained is a controversial one, with writers and artists demanding compensation in instances where their work is used by AI companies such as OpenAI. A number of lawsuits brought by creators are already working their way through the courts, prompting AI firms to seek licensing deals with media giants for trouble-free AI training.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
OpenAI’s ‘GPUs are melting’ over Ghibli trend, places limits for paid users
OpenAI's new typeface OpenAI Sans

OpenAI has enforced temporary rate limits on image generation using the latest GPT-4o model after the internet was hit with a tsunami of images recreated in a style inspired by Studio Ghibli. The announcement comes just a day after OpenAI stripped free ChatGPT users of the ability to generate images with its new model.

OpenAI's co-founder and CEO Sam Altman said the trend was straining OpenAI's server architecture and suggested the load may be warming it up too much. Altman posted on X that while "it's super fun" to witness the internet being painted in art inspired by the classic Japanese animation studio, the surge in image generation could be "melting" GPUs at OpenAI's data centers. Altman, of course, means that figuratively -- we hope!

Read more
OpenAI halts free GPT-4o image generation after Studio Ghibli viral trend
OpenAI and ChatGPT logos are marked do not enter with a red circle and line symbol.

After only one day, OpenAI has put a halt on the free version of its in-app image generator, powered by the GPT-4o reasoning model. The update is intended to improve realism in images and text in AI-generated context; however, users have already created a runaway trend that has caused the AI company to rethink its rollout strategy. 

Not long after the update became available on ChatGPT, users began sharing images they had fashioned to social media platforms in the style of Studio Ghibli, the popular Japanese animation studio. Creations ranged from Studio Ghibli-based personal family photos to iconic scenes from the 2024 Paris Olympics, scenes from movies including “The Godfather” and “Star Wars”, and internet memes including distracted boyfriend and disaster girl.

Read more
OpenAI Academy offers free AI skills workshops for all knowledge levels
OpenAI ChatGPT image

OpenAI has established a free public resource called ‘OpenAI Academy,’ geared toward providing AI education to all knowledge levels.

Among the free offerings, the brand will provide users a mix of online and in-person events, including hands-on workshops and peer discussions, among other digital content, OpenAI said in a press release. 

Read more