OpenAI pauses video generation of Martin Luther King Jr on Sora
17 Oct 2025, 12:23 PM
While guardrails to safeguard the misuse of the image of a person historical or living is vital, the decision will likely have put OpenAI in a tricky spot.
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OpenAI said that it has paused generation of videos depicting civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr on its AI video model, Sora, underling concerns of abusing AI tools that could hurt sentiments and distort historical facts
OpenAI's decision came following the request of Dr. King’s estate after some Sora users generated “disrespectful depictions” of Martin Luther King Jr.
"While there are strong free speech interests in depicting historical figures, OpenAI believes public figures and their families should ultimately have control over how their likeness is used," said OpenAI and King Estate, Inc in an X post.
"Authorized representatives or estate owners can request that their likeness not be used in Sora cameos," they added.
While guardrails to safeguard the misuse of the image of a person historical or living is vital, the decision will likely have put OpenAI in a tricky spot as there may be individual requests to prevent the use of more historical figures.
"OpenAI just opened a can of worms... Meaning all the special rules for everyone who ever existed and determining if they are important enough because if everyone submits request how would that be manageable?", one of the users commented on the post.
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