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OpenAI’s short-form artificial intelligence video app Sora reached 1 million downloads in less than five days after its launch in late September, executives said.
Bill Peebles, Head of Sora at OpenAI, shared the milestone in a post to X late Wednesday. He said Sora reached 1 million downloads even faster than ChatGPT, the company’s popular AI chatbot, which supports 800 million weekly active users.
Sora allows users to generate short videos for free by simply typing prompts. The app is only available on iOS devices and is invitation-based, so you need a code to access it. Despite these limitations, Sora rose to the number one spot in Apple’s App Store.
“The team is working hard to keep up with rapid growth,” Peebles wrote.
Sora’s release also sparked intense backlash over whether the app infringed copyright. CNBC watched videos on the platform that included characters from shows like “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Rick and Morty” and “South Park,” and was able to generate many of the characters on its own.
The Motion Picture Association, which advocates on behalf of the television, film and home video industries, said in a statement on Monday that “We are seeing a proliferation of videos on OpenAI’s services that infringe on our members’ movies, shows and characters.”
“OpenAI must take immediate and decisive action to address this issue,” MPA CEO Charles Rivkin said in a statement. “Established copyright law protects the rights of creators and applies here.”
In a blog post last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company will soon give rights holders more control over character generation.
Speaking with reporters at the company’s DevDay event on Monday, Altman said some users have complained that Sora is too restrictive. He asked for patience as the company irons out best practices.
“Please give us a little bit of respite,” Altman said. “The pace of change will be rapid.”
WATCH: Hollywood backlash grows over OpenAI’s new Sora video model
