One of OpenAI’s leading video generators, Sora, has left for Google.
Tim Brooks, who led the development of Sora and William Peebles, announced in a post on X that he will join Google DeepMind, Google’s AI research unit, to work on video production technology with “world actors.”
“I had an amazing two years at OpenAI making Sora,” Brooks wrote. “Thank you to all the loving and kind people I have worked with.”
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis welcomed Brooks to the X response, saying he would help “realize a long-time dream of a world simulator.” A world simulator it’s a vague phrase – and poorly defined – but DeepMind has used it in models like its recently released Genie, which can generate playable, action-controlled virtual worlds from composite images, real photos, and even drawings.
Here’s how DeepMind researchers describe it in a 2023 paper: “Real-world simulator applications range from the creation of controllable content in games and movies to the training of integrated agents through simulations that can be directly deployed in the real world.”
Brooks was one of the first to work for Sora, having started the project at OpenAI in January 2023. On his LinkedIn, Brooks says he has led research direction and model training.
His departure comes as Sora, which has yet to be released, is reportedly experiencing technical issues that put it at a disadvantage against rival programs from Luma, Runway, and others. FYI, the original show, which aired in February, took more than 10 minutes to make a one-minute video clip. OpenAI is in the process of training an advanced Sora that can make clips faster, sources tell The Information.
Google has its own video production model, Veo, which it unveiled this spring at its annual I/O developer conference, and which is coming soon to YouTube Shorts, YouTube’s short-form video format, to allow creators to produce backgrounds and six-second clips. . .
Despite the technology-related obstacles, OpenAI has appeared to be releasing a significant partnership area for video production opponents in recent months. Earlier this month, Runway signed a deal with Lionsgate, the studio behind the “John Wick” franchise, to train a custom video model for Lionsgate’s catalog of movies. About a week later, Stability, which is building its own set of video production models, hired “Avatar,” “Terminator” and “Titanic” director James Cameron to its board.
OpenAI is said to meet with filmmakers and Hollywood studios earlier this year to show Sora – former CTO Mira Murati went to Cannes – and the company has partnered with several independent directors and some brands to demonstrate the program’s capabilities.
However, OpenAI is yet to announce a long-term partnership with a major manufacturing house.
Brooks – which he is, by a turn of events, actually he is coming back at Google, after working on the company’s Pixel phones — it’s the latest in a series of high-profile wipeouts at OpenAI.
CTO Mira Murati, chief research officer Bob McGrew, and VP of research Barret Zoph announced their departures in late September. Prominent research scientist Andrej Karpathy left OpenAI in February; a few months later, OpenAI founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever quit, along with former security chief Jan Leike. In August, founder John Schulman said he would leave OpenAI. And Greg Brockman, the company’s president, is on sabbatical.
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