Source: OT-Team(G), Vista看天下
AI-generated videos are increasingly recreating historical and cultural figures, sparking debate over ethics and copyright.
Picasso on trial by a Chinese art teacher. Einstein walking out of the gaokao exam room, calmly giving interviews. The Tang-dynasty poet Li Bai reciting verses on a speedboat.These surreal, hyper-realistic clips look flawless — until your brain catches up and reminds you: none of this ever happened. They were all generated by Sora 2, OpenAI's latest text-to-video model that's taking the world by storm.
Only days after its release, the "Sora by OpenAI" iPhone app topped the U.S. App Store, even surpassing ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. Users around the world — including many in China — are now feeding Sora their wildest prompts, turning fantasy into photo-realistic motion.
A new wave of AI storytelling
Compared with earlier AI models, Sora 2 marks a leap in realism and narrative coherence. It can generate smooth, physically accurate motion, multi-scene stories, and entire cinematic sequences in one go — no manual stitching required.
Its most viral feature, Cameo, lets users insert themselves or any authorized person directly into an AI-generated scene. Upload a short clip of yourself, and Sora will seamlessly cast you in a virtual film. For creators in China and beyond, this means anyone — expats, influencers, or brand storytellers — can suddenly star in their own AI movie.
But that same power has ignited fierce ethical debates. The model's precision blurs the line between imitation and replication. Deepfake-like videos of celebrities — including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman himself — have gone viral, leaving families of deceased stars, such as Robin Williams and George Carlin, pleading for restraint.
"This isn't creativity," said one Hollywood lawyer. "It's digital reincarnation — often without consent."
The copyright storm
Much of the controversy stems from Sora 2's handling of copyrighted material. In its early rollout, all intellectual-property characters were automatically available for use unless copyright holders opted out — a nightmare for studios managing hundreds of IPs. Major talent agencies like CAA and UTA, along with studios such as Disney and Warner Bros., quickly pushed back, warning that AI companies were shifting legal risk onto creators and rights owners.
Facing pressure, Altman announced a reversal: OpenAI would now use an opt-in model, blocking all IP by default and requiring explicit permission for use. Rights holders will soon gain "granular control" — they can allow or restrict specific scenes, lines, or contexts.
However, users aren't happy either. On Reddit and X, some complain the app is now "almost useless" without access to famous characters. Others have begun bypassing filters by renaming or slightly altering copyrighted figures.
The battle for creative ownership
The deeper question goes beyond copyright — it's about who defines creativity in the age of AI.
For over a century, traditional entertainment industries relied on exclusive IP rights, controlled distribution, and star systems to make money. AI platforms like Sora 2 threaten to upend that structure, offering an open arena where anyone can generate film-quality content in minutes.
In this new ecosystem, OpenAI and other tech giants aren't just toolmakers — they're the landlords of digital creativity. They own the "land" (the models and infrastructure), while millions of creators "farm" it by producing videos that drive engagement and data. Whoever sets the platform's rules effectively shapes what kind of art the world creates.
To balance innovation with fairness, OpenAI has floated a revenue-sharing model, promising to split profits with rights holders who license their IP. If successful, this could transform intellectual property into a living "digital oil field" — one that continuously generates value for both companies and creators. But questions remain: how will royalties be calculated? who decides value attribution? and can every dataset be truly tracked?
Looking ahead
Whether Sora 2 becomes a creative revolution or a legal quagmire will depend on how quickly society adapts its cultural and ethical frameworks to AI-generated media.
For now, the tool is already influencing global creators — including many foreigners living in China, who are experimenting with putting themselves, their cities, or even local traditions into cinematic AI worlds.
As technology continues to rewrite the boundaries between imagination and reality, one question lingers for all of us:
If anyone can now be edited into any story — where does creativity end, and authenticity begin? What do you think?
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