#Socialites, let’s get into this: OpenAI just made a major move after folks took it way too far.
The company has officially restricted the use of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s likeness in its powerful new AI tool, Sora, after users began generating racist deepfake videos of the civil rights icon.
The decision came down after waves of backlash online, where people expressed outrage over the disrespectful content making rounds using Sora’s technology.
In a statement posted Thursday, October 16 on X (formerly Twitter), OpenAI announced that it has paused generations depicting Dr. King and is tightening controls over how public figures—especially those with historical and cultural significance—are portrayed using AI.
“While there are strong free speech interests in depicting historical figures, OpenAI believes public figures and their families should ultimately have control over how their likeness is used,” the company said.
They didn’t stop there. OpenAI also confirmed it’s been in close conversation with The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc., working directly with Dr. King’s daughter, Dr. Bernice A. King, to help protect her father’s legacy.
“OpenAI thanks Dr. Bernice A. King for reaching out on behalf of King, Inc., and John Hope Bryant and the AI Ethics Council for creating space for conversations like this,” the statement continued.
For context, Sora’s newest version—Sora 2, which dropped on September 30—is OpenAI’s most advanced video generation model to date. It’s capable of crafting full-on cinematic clips with realistic soundscapes, voices, and even facial movements that can mirror real people down to tone, inflection, and appearance.
And it’s not just famous folks being recreated…Sora 2 can pull off digital versions of “any human, animal or object,” according to OpenAI’s own description.
In a now-viral post from earlier this month, Sora team lead Bill Peebles flexed on X that the app reached over a million downloads in less than five days, outpacing the explosive launch of ChatGPT itself.
But as powerful as the tech is, the misuse of it especially when it comes to the legacies of Black leaders has opened up a whole new conversation around digital respect, ethics, and ownership in the age of AI.
Dr. King’s voice, image, and message have long been targets of distortion, watered-down for commercial or political gain. Now, with hyper-realistic AI tools in the mix, the stakes are even higher.
OpenAI says it’s taking all of this seriously. They’re now opening up “direct dialogue with public figures and content owners to gather feedback on what controls they want” moving forward.
And while free speech always enters the chat during debates like this, the message from OpenAI is clear: historical figures—especially ones like Dr. King—deserve better.
TLDR: Sora’s cutting-edge AI made it too easy for users to create offensive deepfakes of Dr. King. After public backlash and direct talks with his estate, OpenAI pulled the plug—at least for now.
Respecting the legacy of our leaders isn’t optional. Even in the age of AI.