Sora has finally been launched. And people have opinions.

Everyone's talking about OpenAI's Sora launch.

It’s finally out.

First announced in February, OpenAI has actually released their state-of-the-art generative video model, Sora, and now it’s available for everyone.

Well, not really.

No other AI Tool has been surrounded by more hype than Sora, so there are a lot of opinions about it. Let’s try to unpack them.

First thing: what’s new?

Let’s start with the technical part.

Sora is a video generation model, designed to take text, image, and video inputs and generate a new video as an output. Users can create videos up to 1080p resolution (20 seconds max) in various formats.

For those curious about how it works, watch this video.

It comes out of the gate with the following features:

• Storyboard: Organize and edit sequences of videos on a timeline.

• Re-cut: Finds and isolates best frames to extend scenes before/after.

• Remix: Modifies elements in existing videos (replace, remove, reimagine).

• Blend: Combines two videos into one seamless clip.

• Loop: Creates seamless repeating videos.

You can also set style presets (“archival”, “noir”, “papercraft”) and adjust aspect ratio, resolution, duration, and # of variations.

Sounds good, right?

Well, there are a few problems. Mainly, the price tag.

It’s clear that Sora is built as a product for professional video makers. For the cost, Plus users ($20/month) can make 50 videos, and Pro users ($200/month) get 500 fast videos and unlimited slow access.

But.

Plus users can’t upload media containing people. For that, you need to spend the whole $200. And maybe you will be able to do it.

Not even drawings:

Finally, if you live in the EU or China, you can’t use it.

It’s locked down. SORA’s wrapped in guardrails: age detection, authenticity tracking metadata, blocks on copyrighted content and public figures, and it won't touch living artists' styles. You also need rights to anything you upload.

Ok. But is it good?

I haven’t tested myself. But I have been collecting the opinions of different artists, and their opinions range from wonderful to trash.

Let’s take a look: