00:00:00
(curious electronic music)
00:00:03
- All right, let's play a game real quick.
00:00:04
Is this next video real or AI-generated?
00:00:09
(timer ticking)
00:00:10
Go ahead, take your time.
00:00:13
(timer dings)
00:00:14
So, that was a real video.
00:00:15
That was a video from a YouTube channel.
00:00:16
Now, what about this video?
Real or AI-generated?
00:00:19
(soft electronic music)
00:00:21
Okay, that one's AI-generated.
00:00:22
Not a lot of giveaways, unless
you happen to have memorized
00:00:25
the geographical landscape
around Mount Fuji
00:00:27
and hunted for inconsistencies.
00:00:29
But, okay, what about this one?
00:00:32
And, yeah, you guessed it already.
00:00:34
This one's AI-generated too.
00:00:36
Okay, what about this one?
00:00:37
Pay really close attention.
00:00:41
Did you catch it?
00:00:42
See, no, okay, that one was real,
00:00:44
but the fact that you thought about it...
00:00:45
So I, for the last week,
have had full access
00:00:47
to the newest and most
advanced version of Sora,
00:00:50
which is the AI video
generation tool from OpenAI.
00:00:55
And the results that I've gotten from it
00:00:58
are both horrifying and
inspiring at the same time.
00:01:03
The last time I looked
at this, nine months ago,
00:01:05
this was a very private
tool that was just unveiled.
00:01:08
They were just starting
to show its capabilities,
00:01:10
and so we were looking at
other people's prompts.
00:01:12
Actually, basically, it was OpenAI's
00:01:14
carefully hand-selected prompts
00:01:16
for what they wanted to show us,
00:01:18
and we could learn some stuff from that.
00:01:20
But this time I just
get the controls myself.
00:01:23
It's just an open text box.
00:01:24
My wish is Sora's command,
00:01:27
and that's actually kind
of a lot of pressure.
00:01:30
You can type whatever you want.
00:01:31
But I did not take this
responsibility lightly.
00:01:33
I basically, over the past couple days,
00:01:34
have been taking every possible angle
00:01:36
of asking Sora to make things for me.
00:01:38
I've asked for photorealistic things.
00:01:40
I've asked for cartoon things.
00:01:42
I've asked for objects, people, signs,
00:01:45
actions, text, still life,
everything you can imagine.
00:01:48
And I feel like I've come
away with a pretty good sense
00:01:50
of what it's good at, what it's bad at,
00:01:54
and what it could actually
be used for today.
00:01:57
But this is a powerful tool
00:01:59
that's about to be in the
hands of millions of people.
00:02:03
So consider this the
first ever Sora review:
00:02:06
the good, the bad, and the ugly.
00:02:09
Let's jump in.
00:02:10
So, first of all, this is the UI.
00:02:12
On the left side, you
can explore other prompts
00:02:14
that people have recently made,
00:02:16
and then some featured ones
00:02:18
where I suppose OpenAI
is still gonna curate
00:02:20
some of the best results
to showcase what it can do.
00:02:23
And if you hit the bookmark
button on any of these,
00:02:26
they'll show up in your saved tab.
00:02:28
And what I like about these, again,
00:02:29
is anything you click on,
00:02:30
you can see obviously who made it,
00:02:33
but you can also read
exactly what they typed
00:02:35
into the prompt box to get this result.
00:02:39
And I'll get back to that in a second.
00:02:40
So, then, underneath that
you have your library
00:02:42
of all the videos I've
generated from Sora prompts,
00:02:46
anything I've tagged as a
favorite from my own creations,
00:02:49
and then uploads,
00:02:50
which is any of the files
that I've uploaded to Sora
00:02:54
for it to make videos out of,
00:02:56
another crazy feature that
I'll get to in a second.
00:02:59
But then, lastly, you have your folders,
00:03:01
so you can organize
things that you've created
00:03:03
into different folders,
00:03:04
maybe for different projects
00:03:05
or different themes or whatever,
00:03:06
just to keep it somewhat organized.
00:03:08
So, okay, right off the bat,
Sora is a tool after all,
00:03:13
and so this feature of being able to see
00:03:16
what other people are typing
00:03:17
and then the results that
they create from those prompts
00:03:20
is both for inspiration
but also for education,
00:03:24
because it is really interesting reading
00:03:26
how simple or how detailed
some of these prompts are
00:03:30
and then looking at what Sora generated
00:03:32
and what it took creative
liberties with to add on its own.
00:03:36
And then if you really
like someone else's results
00:03:38
but wanna adjust it in just a
slight way for your own use,
00:03:41
there's the remix feature.
00:03:43
So, you hit that button,
00:03:45
and then you can describe specific changes
00:03:47
you want it to make to that video
00:03:49
for it to then generate a new one.
00:03:51
So for this one, for example,
00:03:53
I like this shot, and
the house is pretty cool,
00:03:55
but I kind of want there
to be a golf course
00:03:58
on those cliffs in the background, right?
00:04:00
So, I type that, and then I
can also change the resolution,
00:04:03
which, as you can see,
00:04:04
it will take longer
for higher resolutions.
00:04:07
And then you also can specify
00:04:09
exactly how much of a remix it is,
00:04:12
so if it's a subtle,
mild, or strong remix,
00:04:16
which dictates basically how
much it's willing to change
00:04:18
the results from the original.
00:04:19
And then you can even
dial that in on a slider
00:04:21
from one to eight if you want to.
00:04:22
I think adding golf course would be nice,
00:04:25
but I wanna keep those
cliffs and the house,
00:04:27
so it's a mild change, right?
00:04:29
Click "remix", wait a bit,
00:04:32
and then, boom, you have the new creation,
00:04:35
a fresh, new, artificially-generated video
00:04:38
with that same house
and those same cliffs,
00:04:40
but now 1080p and with a golf
course in the background.
00:04:44
Wild.
00:04:45
I've found that 360p
videos take, actually,
00:04:47
very little time to generate.
00:04:49
I do not want to use
the word "create" here.
00:04:52
These are artificially-generated
from source material,
00:04:56
but basically, a five-second, 360p video
00:04:58
will generally take less
than 20 seconds to generate.
00:05:02
And they're being generated
on OpenAI servers,
00:05:04
so it has nothing to do with
the speed of my computer
00:05:06
or even my internet connection.
00:05:07
Once I send off the prompt,
it just takes that time,
00:05:10
and then when it's done, it shows up,
00:05:12
and I can download it if I want to.
00:05:14
And then, something like
a 1080p, 10-second video,
00:05:18
it looks significantly better,
00:05:20
but it also takes much longer.
00:05:21
It can take a couple of minutes
00:05:23
for a really detailed
prompt and a 1080p video.
00:05:26
And that's also right now,
00:05:27
when almost no one else is using it.
00:05:29
I kind of wonder how
much longer it'll take
00:05:30
when this is just open for anyone to use.
00:05:33
But that's roughly how long they've taken.
00:05:34
And there's also the storyboard feature,
00:05:36
which kind of looks and acts
like an online video editor
00:05:40
where you can string
together several prompts.
00:05:43
And it works best for stringing together
00:05:45
several different actions in a row.
00:05:48
Basically, I've noticed
it's hard to get a video
00:05:51
to do several different
things in succession
00:05:54
with a single prompt,
00:05:55
but you can use their built-in editor
00:05:57
to string several
prompts together in a row
00:06:00
and then storyboard can help
you blend them all together
00:06:04
into one longer video,
00:06:05
and that actually can work better instead.
00:06:07
So I've been playing with this all week,
00:06:09
and I've been throwing dozens and dozens
00:06:13
and dozens of prompts at it
00:06:15
with all sorts of
characters, different styles,
00:06:18
different unique things in the video.
00:06:20
And so here are some observations
00:06:22
that may surprise you, or maybe not.
00:06:25
So, one, it seems like there
is no object permanence.
00:06:28
So, we had AI-generated images, right?
00:06:31
And they've gotten...
00:06:32
You've seen the ark of them
getting better and better
00:06:34
and higher resolution
and realistic over time.
00:06:37
Now that we're doing videos,
00:06:39
basically they're stringing together
00:06:41
a bunch of different
AI-generated photos in a row
00:06:44
with some sort of continuity.
00:06:46
But for a video to make sense to a human,
00:06:49
the objects kind of have
to move in certain ways
00:06:52
and behave in certain
ways in the real world.
00:06:55
And so one of the most
common dead giveaways
00:06:57
from a flaw of an AI-generated video,
00:06:59
especially with this tool,
00:07:00
is just errors in object permanence.
00:07:02
So you'll see things like objects
00:07:04
passing in front of each
other or behind each other
00:07:06
in ways that don't make sense.
00:07:08
You'll see stuff disappear
or reappear out of thin air,
00:07:12
especially if objects
pass in front of them,
00:07:14
but even sometimes without
any real reason at all.
00:07:17
They can also just
materialize and then vanish,
00:07:19
like the smartphone in this
imaginary tech reviewer's hands.
00:07:22
Boop, just gone.
00:07:24
And there's also another
one that's really common.
00:07:25
Anytime something with legs has to walk,
00:07:29
if you just watch the
legs for long enough,
00:07:32
they almost guaranteed will mess up
00:07:34
which leg is the front
leg and which is the back.
00:07:37
Just look at this one.
00:07:38
Just try to watch one of the legs,
00:07:40
and you'll see it happens.
00:07:41
It switches back and forth
00:07:43
from the front leg to the back leg.
00:07:45
This is super common.
00:07:47
It happens all the time in these.
00:07:48
And that brings me to another one
00:07:49
of my biggest observations,
00:07:51
which is it just struggles
with physics in general,
00:07:54
the way things move,
00:07:55
which actually makes perfect sense,
00:07:58
because physics would seem
to require some understanding
00:08:02
of what you're making a video about.
00:08:05
So, in the same way that
large language models
00:08:07
can struggle with hallucinations
00:08:09
or putting together sentences
that are technically incorrect
00:08:13
or don't quite make sense,
00:08:15
these video models will also struggle
00:08:18
with putting together videos
00:08:20
where the movement of the objects,
00:08:23
since it doesn't know
that they're objects,
00:08:25
sometimes also doesn't really make sense.
00:08:27
Pretty much anytime I try
anything remotely photorealistic,
00:08:31
basically, you instantly notice
00:08:32
that the movements don't look right.
00:08:34
It tends to look kind of
slow motiony, actually,
00:08:36
but then other parts
won't be in slow motion,
00:08:39
which our eye picks up on right away.
00:08:41
I was playing with making
like CCTV-style footage.
00:08:44
'cause in my head,
00:08:45
that's gonna be the easiest thing to fake.
00:08:46
People are gonna get their hands on this,
00:08:47
they're gonna fake security
camera footage all the time.
00:08:50
But even in this,
00:08:50
you can see the movement of the
humans is just slightly off.
00:08:54
First it's a little slow,
then it's fast for no reason.
00:08:58
It's just weird.
00:08:59
Now, it seems to be decent sometimes
00:09:01
at fluid dynamics for whatever reason.
00:09:04
I've been very impressed
with some examples
00:09:06
of water rippling or crashing in waves,
00:09:09
or moving in realistic waves.
00:09:10
It does happen sometimes.
00:09:12
It can be actually pretty good-looking.
00:09:14
And same thing also with fire.
00:09:15
Sometimes it can look pretty realistic,
00:09:18
even if the smoke isn't.
00:09:20
But, yeah, physics in general
is definitely a weakness.
00:09:23
So then, if you know this,
00:09:25
you can mess more with
claymation or cartoon style,
00:09:29
and then those irregularities
and movement or physics
00:09:31
become a lot easier to palate,
00:09:33
because it feels more
like a stylistic choice
00:09:36
or an artistic choice.
00:09:37
But I'll get to the stuff
that it actually does
00:09:38
really well in a second.
00:09:40
But there is another feature
00:09:41
that you might have seen around
the internet a little bit
00:09:43
with some other tools like this
00:09:44
that takes a source image
00:09:48
and can turn it into
a video with a prompt.
00:09:51
So, people have been
bringing memes to life
00:09:54
and imagining what would happen
00:09:56
right after some iconic image,
00:09:58
just by typing into the AI video generator
00:10:01
and asking Sora what it would look like,
00:10:03
and Sora can do that too.
00:10:05
The difference with Sora, I've found,
00:10:08
is it's way less likely to try anything
00:10:12
that it recognizes as
having any copyrighted
00:10:14
or intellectual property whatsoever.
00:10:16
It's pretty picky.
00:10:17
It actually does reject a lot of stuff.
00:10:19
Anything with any public figures
00:10:21
or recognizing characters
in general, or logos,
00:10:25
it actually refuses to do it.
00:10:27
It will also refuse if
it thinks any subject
00:10:29
you upload in the image
is under 18 years old.
00:10:32
Makes sense.
00:10:33
But I did upload this AI-generated image,
00:10:36
which Dolly made,
00:10:38
and asked it to make them
all singing and dancing,
00:10:41
and hit "generate", and it totally did it.
00:10:45
Again, it helps a lot that
they are cartoon styled
00:10:47
and not some super realistic scene,
00:10:48
but this is a totally AI-generated video.
00:10:53
I also tried a few other
images from my camera roll,
00:10:56
And these just...
00:10:58
It just gets weird.
00:10:59
It just doesn't know the context
00:11:02
of what direction any object
was moving in the photo.
00:11:06
Again, it doesn't know physics,
00:11:08
and so things just get really wonky.
00:11:10
It's impressive that
it's AI-generated video,
00:11:13
but you can tell pretty quickly
00:11:15
that it's AI-generated video.
00:11:17
So, all that being said,
00:11:19
we've seen what it's good at,
00:11:20
we've seen what it's not so good at,
00:11:22
and you might be wondering,
what is this tool actually for?
00:11:27
And I actually found a few
things that are not so scary
00:11:30
that are actually pretty good at.
00:11:31
So, these are the things that
I found, as of right now,
00:11:34
that Sora can be used for.
00:11:36
Abstracts.
00:11:37
So, you can be as descriptive as you want
00:11:39
and create all sorts of textures
and colors and gradients
00:11:42
to make an abstract shape move around
00:11:45
in a way that essentially looks
00:11:47
like it could be a screensaver
00:11:49
or just some background
piece or whatever you want.
00:11:53
I'm sure there's a world
where someone's gonna make
00:11:54
an NFT out of this stuff.
00:11:56
Also totally weird.
00:11:57
But you can do abstract stuff for sure.
00:12:00
I noticed it's getting
better at reproducing text,
00:12:03
especially when you ask
it for specific text.
00:12:06
So, there are sometimes
background garbled text
00:12:10
in these videos, and that's
gonna continue to happen,
00:12:12
but I've found that,
00:12:14
if I asked it for an individual
title slide in a style,
00:12:17
it actually could give me the
correct text on that slide.
00:12:20
This animation it gave me
00:12:22
of sketching the Empire State Building,
00:12:24
this would make a killer title slide
00:12:26
or even an intro to a documentary
00:12:29
about the building, or Manhattan,
or something like that.
00:12:32
I was very impressed.
00:12:33
And then stop motion or
cartoon-style characters.
00:12:37
Again, like I said before,
00:12:38
cartoons don't necessarily have to have
00:12:40
realistic movements or physics,
00:12:43
so the errors in those things
don't hit the eye as much,
00:12:47
and so the characters still
look like, dare I say, art.
00:12:51
They're characters.
00:12:52
Especially in scenes like this one.
00:12:54
The graffiti doesn't have
to actually say real words
00:12:57
for this to look normal.
00:12:59
The bear doesn't have to
have the correct number
00:13:01
of fingers or toes.
00:13:02
It just looks like some album
art come to life, basically,
00:13:06
which I'm sure someone would find useful
00:13:08
on social media somewhere.
00:13:09
And while we're at it,
00:13:10
here's a couple other random
prompts that impressed me.
00:13:13
I asked for Santa fighting
Frosty the Snowman
00:13:16
in the style of "Mortal Kombat",
00:13:18
and it built a readable scoreboard.
00:13:20
I didn't ask for the scoreboard,
00:13:22
but it built all that, with
the names in everything,
00:13:24
which is pretty crazy.
00:13:26
Immediately, again, the details are weird
00:13:27
when you start looking at it,
00:13:28
but this could be a good
inspirational starting point.
00:13:32
And then I also asked for a video
00:13:34
of a tech reviewer sitting at a desk,
00:13:36
and I said, nothing about this fake plant,
00:13:41
but Sora took the liberty
00:13:43
of adding this exact fake plant here,
00:13:46
which I said nothing about in my prompt.
00:13:48
And that is a convenient reminder
00:13:52
of the other side of the tools like this,
00:13:54
the unknown behind a lot of the tools.
00:13:57
Clearly we already know that
these are AI-generated videos
00:14:01
that have to come from
some source material.
00:14:04
Are my videos in that source material?
00:14:06
Is this exact plant part
of the source material?
00:14:10
Is it just a coincidence? I don't know.
00:14:12
OpenAI has talked about
using publicly available
00:14:16
media and data, and it's always, to me,
00:14:18
been kind of a sketchy definition.
00:14:20
We don't know if it's everything.
00:14:22
We don't know if it's too late to opt out,
00:14:24
if we wanted to opt out.
00:14:25
And also, I have no idea
how much energy this uses
00:14:29
or if it is significantly more
00:14:31
than the LLMs or Dolly we're using.
00:14:35
But still, the craziest
part of all of this
00:14:37
is the fact that this tool, Sora,
00:14:39
is going to be available to the public,
00:14:41
I guess around the time
of this video publish,
00:14:44
to everyone, to millions
of people all at once.
00:14:48
And I mean, yes, it does a
pretty good job with guardrails
00:14:52
of refusing to do anything photorealistic,
00:14:54
refusing to use actual people's likenesses
00:14:57
or any dangerous or harmful acts.
00:15:00
And, yes, it does watermark
every single generated video
00:15:04
with this little animation
here in the corner.
00:15:07
But you can still crop watermarks.
00:15:09
And it's still an extremely powerful tool
00:15:12
that directly moves us
further into the era
00:15:14
of not being able to believe
anything you see online.
00:15:18
I mean, read through the
comments on my last video
00:15:20
about AI-generated video.
00:15:21
This is a lot for humanity
to digest right now.
00:15:25
All of that, and these
videos don't even have audio.
00:15:28
They're just a few seconds
long. They're just 1080p.
00:15:32
This is the new baseline.
00:15:34
This is, once again, the
worst that they will be
00:15:38
as they continue to get
better in the future.
00:15:41
It's a lot to think about.
00:15:42
Thanks for watching.
00:15:44
Catch you in the next one.
00:15:45
Peace.
00:15:46
(light percussion music)
00:15:47
Real quick, thanks to Ridge
00:15:49
for sponsoring this portion of the video
00:15:50
and for supporting the channel.
00:15:52
Just as a PSA, we're coming
up on that time of year
00:15:55
where we're perfectly in the middle of
00:15:57
we should rush to get good holiday gifts.
00:15:59
We're kind of running out of time.
00:16:01
Lucky for you, Ridge is running
a holiday sale right now
00:16:04
where they're doing up to 40% off.
00:16:05
And you guys know one of the
reasons I partner with them
00:16:07
is because they have
actually high-quality gear.
00:16:09
So that's one of the things
00:16:10
I'm gonna be doing for this year,
00:16:11
is getting gifts from Ridge for people.
00:16:13
And I think I actually haven't
gotten Andrew his gift yet,
00:16:16
so hopefully he doesn't
watch this part of the video,
00:16:19
but I think I'm gonna get him,
00:16:20
since he's a hiker, one
of the Ridge knives.
00:16:23
But don't tell him.
00:16:24
But whatever you end up getting,
00:16:25
if you slide over to ridge.com/mkbhd,
00:16:28
that's where you'll be able to find
00:16:29
everything that's on sale
and everything Ridge does.
00:16:31
So, shout out to them again
00:16:33
and catch you guys in the next video.
00:16:35
Peace.
