Major Talent Agencies Circle the Wagons As Sora 2 Destabilizes Hollywood

Is Hollywood opting in or out? Early signs are that the major studios and talent agencies are now starting to circle the wagons over OpenAI‘s latest product, Sora 2: an invite-only, TikTok-style video app debuting Sept. 30 that allows users to scan their face and place themselves in hyperrealistic clips.

Creative Artists Agency, the Bryan Lourd-led major talent firm repping A-listers like Brad Pitt and Scarlett Johansson, is the latest to publicly draw a line in the sand on Sora 2, which can generate clips of major studios’ characters featuring the likenesses of star talent.

CAA‘s statement, which goes unattributed to a single executive, takes a broader approach than just saying that the major agency is opting its clients out of OpenAI’s latest tool. In fact, it doesn’t explicitly use the words “opt out” at all but frames Sora 2 as a “misuse” of emerging technology that “exposes our clients and their intellectual property to significant risk.”

The missive, which underlines “control, permission for use, and compensation” for its clients, signaled room for OpenAI to develop a “solution” to its own platform’s copyright problem.

Its rival, the David Kramer-led United Talent Agency deemed Sora 2 “exploitation, not innovation” in its own public stand on Thursday.

“There is no substitute for human talent in our business, and we will continue to fight tirelessly for our clients to ensure that they are protected. When it comes to OpenAI’s Sora or any other platform that seeks to profit from our clients’ intellectual property and likeness, we stand with artists,” a rep for UTA stated.

The UTA statement added, “The future of industries based on creative expression and artistry relies on controls, protections, and rightful compensation. The use of such property without consent, credit or compensation is exploitation, not innovation.”

The CAA statement takes a slightly different tack than longtime rival agency WME‘s approach. That Oct. 1 memo, issued by head of digital strategy Chris Jacquemin as guidance to agents, says: “We have notified OpenAI that all WME clients be opted out of the latest Sora AI update, regardless of whether IP rights holders have opted out IP our clients are associated with.”

Days earlier, even the normally reserved Motion Picture Association, the top lobbying group repping Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Amazon MGM Studios, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery, spoke out against OpenAI’s current plan for Sora 2. MPA chief Charles Rivkin said in an Oct. 6 shot that OpenAI “must acknowledge it remains their responsibility — not rightsholders’ — to prevent infringement on the Sora 2 service” and thatAltman’s team “needs to take immediate and decisive action to address this issue.”

Whether Altman backtracks or compromises further is the next question. On Oct. 3, the OpenAI chief at least nodded to the rightsholders issue in a tellingly titled post called “Sora Update #1” acknowledging the company wants to “let rightsholders decide how to proceed (our aim of course is to make it so compelling that many people want to). There may be some edge cases of generations that get through that shouldn’t.”

Altman added, “Please expect a very high rate of change from us.”

CAA’s full unsigned memo on Oct. 8 is below:

“CAA is unwavering in our commitment to protect our clients and the integrity of their creations. The misuse of new technologies carries consequences that reach far beyond entertainment and media, posing serious and harmful risks to individuals, businesses, and societies globally. It is clear that Open AI/Sora exposes our clients and their intellectual property to significant risk. The question is, does OpenAI and its partner companies believe that humans, writers, artists, actors, directors, producers, musicians, and athletes deserve to be compensated and credited for the work they create?

Or does Open AI believe they can just steal it, disregarding global copyright principles and blatantly dismissing creators’ rights, as well as the many people and companies who fund the production, creation, and publication of these humans’ work? In our opinion, the answer to this question is obvious. Control, permission for use, and compensation is a fundamental right of these workers. Anything less than the protection of creators and their rights is unacceptable.

We are open to hearing the solutions that Open AI has to these critical issues and remain steadfast in our work with intellectual property businesses and leaders, and creative guilds and unions, as well as state and federal legislators and global policymakers, to answer these challenges and set an aligned path for the future.”