OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research organization behind the popular chatbot app ChatGPT, has announced plans to integrate its AI video generation tool Sora directly into ChatGPT. This move is expected to expand the creative capabilities of ChatGPT and potentially drive growth in its premium subscription tiers.

Currently, Sora is only available through a dedicated web app launched in December, which allows users to generate up to 20-second cinematic clips using the AI video model. However, OpenAI's product lead for Sora, Rohan Sahai, revealed during a Friday office hours session on Discord that the company is working on making Sora accessible within ChatGPT, marrying the two products.

Sahai declined to offer a timeline for the integration, but indicated that the version of Sora that ultimately comes to ChatGPT may not offer the same level of control as the web app, where users can edit and stitch footage together. This could be a strategic move to attract users to ChatGPT by letting them generate Sora videos from the chatbot, and incentivize them to upgrade to premium subscription tiers, which may offer higher video generation limits.

One of the reasons OpenAI launched Sora as a separate web app was to maintain ChatGPT's simplicity, Sahai explained. Since its launch, OpenAI has expanded Sora's web experience, creating more ways for users to browse Sora-generated videos from the community. The company is also actively looking for mobile engineers to build a standalone mobile app for Sora.

In addition to integrating Sora into ChatGPT, OpenAI is working on expanding Sora's generation capabilities to images. Sahai confirmed rumors of an AI image generator powered by Sora, which could potentially let users create photos that are more photorealistic. ChatGPT already supports image generation, powered by OpenAI's DALL-E 3 model, but a Sora-powered image generator could offer more advanced capabilities.

Furthermore, OpenAI is working on a new version of Sora Turbo, the model that currently powers the Sora web app. This could lead to even more advanced video generation capabilities in the future.

The integration of Sora into ChatGPT has significant implications for the creative industry, as it could democratize access to high-quality video content generation. It also highlights OpenAI's continued focus on expanding the capabilities of its AI models and making them more accessible to a wider range of users.

As OpenAI continues to push the boundaries of AI-generated content, it will be interesting to see how the integration of Sora into ChatGPT unfolds and what new creative possibilities it will enable for users.