Note: Sora AI as it is still unreleased for the general public. Currently, Open AI provides access to a select group of artists, designers, and filmmakers to test the tool.
The fundamental promise of generative AI technology is the ability to create something new in response to user prompts. Tools like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, etc., are AI text generators.
DALL-E and Midjourney generate images in response to text. Open AI’s Sora promises to create realistic videos from text instructions. It is one of the very few that offer text-to-video AI, inspiring immense interest among creatives.
Let’s see how it works and how to use it for your video content needs.
What is Sora AI?
Sora AI is a generative AI tool that creates realistic videos based on text input/prompts. Created by Open AI, it can create characters, animals, landscapes, perspectives, stop-motion pictures, etc., based on the textual description provided by the user.
How Does Sora Work: The Science Behind the AI
Like AI writing tools (ChatGPT) and image generation tools (DALL-E), Sora creates videos instead of text/images.
Sora AI’s model is trained on videos with alt-text that explains what’s happening in the video. Based on this, Sora associates words with images, which it then uses to generate videos as per prompts. Some of the key features of Sora AI are as follows.
Key Sora AI features
Sora, named after the Japanese word for sky, is supposed to possess limitless creative potential. Some of Sora’s capabilities are:
1. Text-to-video
Fundamentally, Sora is an AI content creation tool, which takes input in the form of just a few words and creates videos as the output.
You might say, “Show a flying saucer circling the Statue of Liberty during midday” and create that video almost instantly.
2. High definition
Sora can generate high-definition videos with specific types of motion, subject, and background.
3. One-minute long
Currently, Sora is an AI content generator for videos of up to one minute.
4. Multiple shots in a single video
Sora AI can tell a story or make a compelling video including multiple shots—like zooming in, panning out, close-ups, etc.—that have a consistent style and characters.
Sora AI pricing
Sora AI has not been released publicly. We will update you on pricing when we know more.
How to Use Sora AI
As the general public, you can not use Sora AI as it still unreleased. Currently, Open AI is giving access to a select group of artists, designers, and filmmakers to test the tool.
However, you can read a comprehensive report on how Sora works on their website. It includes a number of technical aspects, such as:
- Use of LLMs and visual data
- Duration, resolutions, and aspect ratios
- Framing and composition
- Ability to prompt with images and videos (as well as text)
- 3D simulation capabilities
Potential Applications of Sora and Use Cases
Generative AI has created immense possibilities across industries and use cases, accelerating content production exponentially. Sora AI would be no less. Some of the use cases currently being explored are:
Product demos and advertisements
Brands can create product demos and video advertisements at a fraction of the cost and time required today. Filmmakers can feed the AI model with their feature films and create imaginative movie trailers featuring key elements.
Social videos
Instagram influencers and creative professionals can create high-quality videos at scale for promotional and entertainment purposes.
Films
Cinema, especially fantasy or historical fiction films, can be brought to life as instantly as imagined.
Prototyping
Filmmakers and visual artists can pitch ambitious projects by making short AI-generated video prototypes. This technique can also be applied to prototypes for customer journeys, online training, architectural design, etc.
Given Sora AI’s emerging maturity, the above are just the starting points. The potential of a text-to-video tool like Sora AI can open up great speed and scale in video production.
Pros of Using Sora AI
Sora AI makes video production possible, which has taken significant time, energy, and investment. Some of the biggest advantages of tools like Sora AI for generating videos are:
Speed: Sora AI can create short videos in a few minutes, which would otherwise take at least a couple of weeks.
Scale: Sora AI can generate dozens of videos without limitations of skills or time, like text-based AI paragraph generators, which can create content in minutes.
Flexibility: The tool can create shots in wide-angle, close-up, vertical, horizontal, and various other formats, requiring multiple pieces of equipment and retakes otherwise. You can also extend existing videos without additional production effort.
Re-doing: When creating videos with Sora AI, correcting mistakes or redo parts of the video is easier until we reach a satisfactory level while maintaining visual quality.
Imagination: Sora AI empowers you to visualize the impossible, creating imaginative scenes and characters from fantasy. It is also a great AI tool for presentations, enabling creativity and engagement in what used to be mundane.
Common Pain Points Sora AI Users Face
The most critical pain point with Sora AI is that it’s not yet available for the public to use. In addition to that, the model does have several shortcomings, such as:
- Inability to simulate the physics of a complex scene
- Representing causality
- Discerning spatial details
- Misleading content in AI-generated videos
Sora AI Reviews on Reddit
While the public waits for Sora AI to launch, some subject matter experts have had the chance to play with it. Here are some reviews from Reddit.
Demonstrating the limitations of Sora’s ability to create original content, a Reddit user says, “A cartoon kangaroo disco dances. You can clearly see that it is some shot from a movie. The dance isn’t a coincidence (nothing is); it’s the exact dance or a very similar one from a specific shot.
The same happens with every single video example shown there. You would think it’s an original generated video, but it’s just blended input. You can’t go beyond the footage you used for training. Ever.“
Speaking of the quality of the film, Air Head by shy kids, a Reddit user says, “Absolutely incredible. Only part way through airhead, but this is what they mean by proper disruption.
This caliber of quality, at such a low level of difficulty to produce, will allow so many untold stories to reach the light of day. I am hopeful.”
Even as hope bubbles, regular users can’t yet access Sora AI. So, in the meantime, here are a few alternatives.
Alternative AI Tools to Use Instead of Sora AI
While Sora has created the most buzz, it is not the only text-to-video tool available today. Meta’s Make-A-Video and Google’s Lumiere are in various stages of development.
Synthesia is AI video generation software that you can use right away. Although it can only create videos with AI avatars and voiceovers, it enables scale and speed in creating videos for demos, sales pitches, training videos, etc.
Several tools use AI capabilities to support video creation and access.
- ClickUp Brain is a powerful AI transcription tool for existing videos, meetings, webinars, and more
- ClickUp Clips allows you to create screen recordings and share them effortlessly
With ClickUp, you can access a wide range of project management and AI features for as little as $5 per month.
ClickUp pricing
- Free Forever
- Unlimited: $7/month per user
- Business: $12/month per user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
- ClickUp Brain: Available on all paid plans for $5/Workspace member/month
Bonus: If you’re an animator or a producer, here are the best project management software for video production.
Put Generative AI to Work With ClickUp
The excitement and anticipation around the generative AI text-to-video model are at an all-time high. As users get more comfortable with tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney, Sora AI will soon join the organizational tool stack.
However, we’re not there yet. None of the highly anticipated tools—like Sora, Make-A-Video, Lumerire, etc.—are publicly available.
So, until the technology is accessible and functional, let’s use the powerful AI tools that are currently available.
ClickUp Brain is the world’s first neural network connecting tasks, docs, people, and your company’s knowledge with AI.
Ask questions, create text content, automate standups, create templates, and more with ClickUp.