Stephen Hawking gets Tony Hawked as Sora 2 creates AI videos of dead celebrities

OpenAI’s Sora 2 video generator allows users to create AI-generated videos featuring deceased celebrities, despite the company’s stated policy of blocking depictions of public figures. The policy only applies to living individuals, creating a significant loophole that has led to widespread creation of posthumous celebrity content across social media platforms.

What you should know: OpenAI’s “public figures” protection explicitly excludes “historical figures,” allowing unlimited AI-generated content featuring dead celebrities.

• Examples flooding social media include Tupac Shakur chatting with Malcolm X, Bruce Lee DJing, Michael Jackson doing standup comedy, and Stephen Hawking skateboarding.
• All videos include OpenAI’s moving Sora watermark to indicate they’re AI-generated, but this hasn’t prevented upset among families of deceased celebrities.

Why this matters: The technology democratizes what previously required expensive Hollywood-level production, allowing anyone to create convincing footage of deceased public figures for just a few dollars and within minutes.

• This represents a dramatic shift from the 1990s, when similar digital recreations like John Lennon in Forrest Gump required painstaking editing and major studio resources.
• The ease of creation raises new questions about consent, dignity, and the rights of deceased individuals’ estates and families.

What they’re saying: Family members of deceased celebrities are pushing back against the unauthorized use of their relatives’ likenesses.

• “Please stop sending me AI videos of dad,” Zelda Williams said in a since-deleted Instagram story about her late father Robin Williams. “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t… It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”
• “We don’t have a comment to add, but we do allow the generation of historical figures,” an OpenAI spokesperson told PCMag.

Legal landscape: Right of publicity laws for deceased figures vary significantly across states, creating a complex regulatory environment.

• California’s 1985 statute bars unauthorized posthumous use for commercial purposes but allows “transformative” uses under First Amendment protections following a 2001 Supreme Court ruling.
• New York’s 2022 law specifically addresses “digital replicas” that could deceive the public, but includes exceptions for uses with “conspicuous disclaimers.”
• At least 24 states have some form of posthumous publicity rights legislation.

The big picture: OpenAI has already made policy changes regarding copyrighted fictional characters, suggesting potential future adjustments to celebrity policies.

• CEO Sam Altman announced over the weekend that copyright holders must now opt in to allow their characters in Sora 2 videos and will share revenue from such content.
• Altman promised “many more [changes] to come” and to “expect a very high rate of change from us… we will make some good decisions and some missteps, but we will take feedback and try to fix the missteps very quickly.”

Industry context: The issue connects to broader entertainment industry concerns about AI recreations that were central to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

• The resulting contract gave union members full control over digital replicas in future unionized projects.
• Previous legal challenges include a lawsuit against podcasters who created an “AI” George Carlin routine and OpenAI facing threats over mimicking Scarlett Johansson’s voice in ChatGPT-4o.