OpenAI plans to launch an AI-only TikTok clone

Wired has learned from its sources that OpenAI aims to enter the short video market, competing with platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. However, there is one significant difference between the ChatGPT maker's offering and others: it will only allow AI-generated content, effectively taking most of the effort out of content creation. Great gig for prompt engineers, though.

Initially, the platform will leverage OpenAI's Sora 2 video generation model and limit the clips to ten seconds each. Users can upload their likeness to the app via an identity verification tool. Core TikTok/Reels components, such as Remix, will be present, allowing users to modify content created by others.

The app can generate copyrighted content, too. Copyright holders must go out of their way to opt out and ensure their material doesn't end up on the app. Initially, this will prove to be a nightmare for creators and organisations alike, as there will be a lot of confusion around which material is permitted.

The AI-only model will enable OpenAI to fine-tune future versions of Sora. Additionally, it can ensure the content never leaves the app, effectively eliminating the need for another one of ByteDance's popular offerings: CapCut. Whether or not it will have any meaningful impact on the already saturated short video market remains to be seen.

OpenAI has yet to comment on the matter officially, and now that the cat is out of the bag, it shouldn't be long before it happens. Given the sheer amount of compute needed for AI video generation, OpenAI will likely adopt an invite-only model to build up hype and restrict the app to a handful of markets.