Why OpenAI’s new ‘character cameos’ are a smart play

• OpenAI’s latest feature for its Sora app allows users to add their pets.
• These character cameos don’t require a full facial scan like the standard Sora videos.
• By betting on cute pets, OpenAI is playing to one of the internet’s long-held strengths.

Sam Altman wants to make your pet a star.

OpenAI’s latest gambit is built on the foundation of I Can Has Cheezburger?, Grumpy Cat, and just about every corgi you saw a decade ago.

On Wednesday, OpenAI announced that it was adding character cameos to Sora, its TikTok-esque app. Users can now make their pets or objects the star of (mostly) whatever their hearts and imaginations desire.

“Anything can be a character cameo,” a talking owl says in OpenAI’s promotional video.

Sora has been a major hit for OpenAI, quickly zooming to the No. 2 spot for free apps on Apple’s App Store (behind only ChatGPT). It has also been the source of major headaches, adding its own spin to nearly every AI-related controversy in its less than a month of existence.

That’s why pivoting to pets makes a lot of sense. People nervous about doing a facial scan (which is how Sora generates videos of people) can simply offer up their cat, dog, chinchilla, parrot, or even a lamp. Instead of a facial scan, Sora’s new feature can even generate an AI avatar off what’s already in your camera roll.

As one of my Business Insider colleagues put it, they would never share their own likeness but would happily offer up their pet’s.

Likeness and intellectual property issues have been a major concern for AI, an issue that Sora has faced from the outset. Early Sora videos depicted SpongeBob as Walter White cooking meth and as a Hitler-esque figure. It isn’t hard to imagine that Nickledon and its parent company, Paramount, were not pleased to see a beloved children’s character depicted in such settings.

OpenAI later stepped up its restrictions on third-party content. Altman ultimately said that video struck IP owners differently than other media. (That was before another pullback related to historical figures.)

“If you make a funny image of someone versus a real video, the video feels much more real and lifelike, and there’s a stronger emotional resonance,” he told Tech analyst Ben Thompson.

Altman doesn’t have to worry about major media companies and their lawyers when it comes to videos depicting your pets. And if the history of the internet shows anything, one of them could easily become the next star.

Have fun making your pet into a superhero, just don’t try to make him an Avenger. Disney isn’t taking applications at this time.