What a ridiculous article. The author keeps saying that “the model” was leaked (that specific phrasing, over and over throughout the article) and then at the end says “the model was disabled”. You can’t “disable” a model if it’s been leaked! ARRRGH!
If the title “API Key to OpenAI’s Sora Tool Leaked…” is too nerdy for Forbes’ audience, something like “Access to OpenAI’s Sora Tool Leaked…” would’ve at least properly communicated what was going on.
But at the end of the day I think the problem is just that this author has no idea how AI models work and doesn’t understand the difference between an AI model and a website where you can make stuff with an AI model.
One silver lining I want to note (after looking at the HF page again) is that they mention 4 open video models, 3 of which (Mochi 1, LTX Video and Pyramid Flow) I had not yet heard of. For anyone who, like me, has been frustrated at the drought of open (locally runnable) Diffusion Transformer models, check these out. They’re pretty groundbreaking.
They leaked an API access key (I think) and some generated videos not reviewed by OpenAI potentially (they say that all Sora videos posted online has to be reviewed by OpenAI).
“This wasn’t just about unpaid work—it was about respect,” noted one anonymous contributor quoted in the Hugging Face commentary. “OpenAI treated our input like raw material, not creative expertise. It’s not collaboration; it’s extraction.”
This sounds weird. Surely one does not offer their contributions for free for something like OpenAI. Did they not write an agreement? Where they unhappy with the terms? Sounds like they should have negotiate the terms upfront.
As is typical of the Forbes contributor network [0], the story is basically wrong. They just leaked a (now deactivated) API key and some videos created using Sora, with a mission statement and a python script that called the API. Not an actual model leak.
┌∩┐(◣◢)┌∩┐ DEAR CORPORATE AI OVERLORDS ┌∩┐(◣◢)┌∩┐
If this letter resonates with you add your signature here.
We received access to Sora with the promise to be early testers, red teamers and creative partners. However, we believe instead we are being lured into "art washing" to tell the world that Sora is a useful tool for artists.
ARTISTS ARE NOT YOUR UNPAID R&D
we are not your: free bug testers, PR puppets, training data, validation tokens
Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback and experimental work for the program for a $150B valued company. While hundreds contribute for free, a select few will be chosen through a competition to have their Sora-created films screened — offering minimal compensation which pales in comparison to the substantial PR and marketing value OpenAI receives.
║║║║║ DENORMALIZE BILLION DOLLAR BRANDS EXPLOITING ARTISTS FOR UNPAID R&D AND PR ║║║║║
Furthermore, every output needs to be approved by the OpenAI team before sharing. This early access program appears to be less about creative expression and critique, and more about PR and advertisement.
We are releasing this tool to give everyone an opportunity to experiment with what ~300 artists were offered: a free and unlimited access to this tool.
We are not against the use of AI technology as a tool for the arts (if we were, we probably wouldn't have been invited to this program). What we don't agree with is how this artist program has been rolled out and how the tool is shaping up ahead of a possible public release. We are sharing this to the world in the hopes that OpenAI becomes more open, more artist friendly and supports the arts beyond PR stunts.
We call on artists to make use of tools beyond the proprietary:
Open Source video generation tools allow artists to experiment with the avant garde free from gate keeping, commercial interests or serving as PR to any corporation. We also invite artists to train their own models with their own datasets.
Some open source video tools available are:
CogVideoX
Mochi 1
LTX Video
Pyramid Flow
However, as we are aware not everyone has the hardware or technical capability to run open source tools and models, we welcome tool makers to listen to and provide a path to true artist expression, with fair compensation to the artists.
What a ridiculous article. The author keeps saying that “the model” was leaked (that specific phrasing, over and over throughout the article) and then at the end says “the model was disabled”. You can’t “disable” a model if it’s been leaked! ARRRGH!
If the title “API Key to OpenAI’s Sora Tool Leaked…” is too nerdy for Forbes’ audience, something like “Access to OpenAI’s Sora Tool Leaked…” would’ve at least properly communicated what was going on.
But at the end of the day I think the problem is just that this author has no idea how AI models work and doesn’t understand the difference between an AI model and a website where you can make stuff with an AI model.
One silver lining I want to note (after looking at the HF page again) is that they mention 4 open video models, 3 of which (Mochi 1, LTX Video and Pyramid Flow) I had not yet heard of. For anyone who, like me, has been frustrated at the drought of open (locally runnable) Diffusion Transformer models, check these out. They’re pretty groundbreaking.
Doesn't seem like testers would have access to the actual weights/graph and so would not be able to leak anything.
They leaked an API access key (I think) and some generated videos not reviewed by OpenAI potentially (they say that all Sora videos posted online has to be reviewed by OpenAI).
“This wasn’t just about unpaid work—it was about respect,” noted one anonymous contributor quoted in the Hugging Face commentary. “OpenAI treated our input like raw material, not creative expertise. It’s not collaboration; it’s extraction.”
This sounds weird. Surely one does not offer their contributions for free for something like OpenAI. Did they not write an agreement? Where they unhappy with the terms? Sounds like they should have negotiate the terms upfront.
Openai so open there's leaks.
Here's the actual repo: https://huggingface.co/spaces/PR-Puppets/PR-Puppet-Sora/tree...
As is typical of the Forbes contributor network [0], the story is basically wrong. They just leaked a (now deactivated) API key and some videos created using Sora, with a mission statement and a python script that called the API. Not an actual model leak.
[0]: https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/02/an-incomplete-history-of-f...
From the actual huggingface site - seems like API access leaked and a few mini-videos generated over the ~3 hours the leak was up (https://huggingface.co/spaces/PR-Puppets/PR-Puppet-Sora):
==================================================
┌∩┐(◣◢)┌∩┐ DEAR CORPORATE AI OVERLORDS ┌∩┐(◣◢)┌∩┐ If this letter resonates with you add your signature here.
We received access to Sora with the promise to be early testers, red teamers and creative partners. However, we believe instead we are being lured into "art washing" to tell the world that Sora is a useful tool for artists.
ARTISTS ARE NOT YOUR UNPAID R&D we are not your: free bug testers, PR puppets, training data, validation tokens
Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback and experimental work for the program for a $150B valued company. While hundreds contribute for free, a select few will be chosen through a competition to have their Sora-created films screened — offering minimal compensation which pales in comparison to the substantial PR and marketing value OpenAI receives.
║║║║║ DENORMALIZE BILLION DOLLAR BRANDS EXPLOITING ARTISTS FOR UNPAID R&D AND PR ║║║║║
Furthermore, every output needs to be approved by the OpenAI team before sharing. This early access program appears to be less about creative expression and critique, and more about PR and advertisement.
[̲̅$̲̅(̲̅ )̲̅$̲̅] CORPORATE ARTWASHING DETECTED [̲̅$̲̅(̲̅ )̲̅$̲̅]
We are releasing this tool to give everyone an opportunity to experiment with what ~300 artists were offered: a free and unlimited access to this tool.
We are not against the use of AI technology as a tool for the arts (if we were, we probably wouldn't have been invited to this program). What we don't agree with is how this artist program has been rolled out and how the tool is shaping up ahead of a possible public release. We are sharing this to the world in the hopes that OpenAI becomes more open, more artist friendly and supports the arts beyond PR stunts.
We call on artists to make use of tools beyond the proprietary: Open Source video generation tools allow artists to experiment with the avant garde free from gate keeping, commercial interests or serving as PR to any corporation. We also invite artists to train their own models with their own datasets.
Some open source video tools available are:
CogVideoX Mochi 1 LTX Video Pyramid Flow However, as we are aware not everyone has the hardware or technical capability to run open source tools and models, we welcome tool makers to listen to and provide a path to true artist expression, with fair compensation to the artists.
Enjoy,
some sora-alpha-artists, Jake Elwes, Memo Akten, CROSSLUCID, Maribeth Rauh, Joel Simon, Jake Hartnell, Bea Ramos, Power Dada, aurèce vettier, acfp, Iannis Bardakos, 204 no-content | Cintia Aguiar Pinto & Dimitri De Jonghe, Emmanuelle Collet, XU Cheng, Operator, Katie Peyton Hofstadter, Anika Meier, Solimán López
If this letter resonates with you add your signature here.
==================================================