A new low ...

@mannthatsreal/ @DrClownPhD via X

A new low. Sora 2 losers taking the time needed to create video clips brutalizing Stephen Hawking,
the renowned physicist who coped with ALS all of his life while changing man's view of the universe in profound ways, makes me feel ashamed to be human.

OpenAI is capitalizing on bad taste with its new text-to-video generator, Sora 2.

The new app allows users to share AI-generated videos on a TikTok-style feed. If you hoped that people would be using it to create great art, prepare to be disappointed — and nowhere is that failure clearer than in videos that resurrect sloppified versions of deceased celebrities.

We’ve seen videos of Michael Jackson rapping, for instance, as well as Tupac Shakur hanging out in North Korea and John F. Kennedy rambling about Black Friday deals.

The ethics of puppeteering the likeness of a dead person are dicey at best. But for a glimpse of the real rock bottom of the nascent Sora 2 content ecosystem, consider a wave of videos that show famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking — who used a wheelchair since the late 1960s due to the motor neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which ultimately led to his death in 2018 — being brutalized in a range of horrifying ways.

In closing ...

There’s a particular irony in AI being used to depict horrific violence against Hawking, who was an outspoken critic of the risks of AI during his life.

It’s also a distasteful illustration of tensions around Sora 2 that OpenAI has yet to meaningfully address. While its safety documentation for Sora 2 states that the company will “take measures to block depictions of public figures,” videos of deceased celebrities are running rampant on social media.

In a statement to PCMag, the company said that it would “allow the generation of historical figures,” suggesting an exception for the departed.

If the company is opting to allow videos of dead public figures, is anything fair game, regardless how violent or grotesque? If the company is allowing footage of a man in a wheelchair being beaten and bludgeoned, it’s hard to imagine what isn’t allowed.

The inherent costs of free speech is in play here along

with OpenAIs endless pursuit of money no matter the cost. 

Stephen Hawking, c. 1980

Remarkable man, profound physicist.