Don’t miss the leaders of OpenAI, Chevron, Nvidia, Kaiser Permanente and Capital One only at VentureBeat Transform 2024. Get essential information about GenAI and expand your network at this exclusive three-day event. Find out more
Retailer Toys R Us is tapping into AI-generated videos with its latest brand video, which uses OpenAI’s non-public AI-generating video model Sora.
A video made with Sora by advertising agency Native Foreign gives a brief summary of the origin story of Toys R Us from its real founder, Charles Lazarus.
It features a fully AI representation of a young Lazarus and the toy store mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe.
In a press release, Toys R Us said the over one-minute video was produced by Toys R Us Studios president Kim Miller Olko and directed by Native Foreign co-founder and creative director Nick Kleverow. It was screened during the Cannes Lions festival in 2024. Toys R Us said the video came together, from concept to final product, in just a few weeks.
Countdown to VB Transform 2024
Join enterprise leaders in San Francisco July 9-11 for our flagship AI event. Connect with peers, explore the opportunities and challenges of Generative AI, and learn how to integrate AI applications into your industry. Register now
On X, an account identified as Kleverov wrote that it was “an honor to create the first branded film made with OpenAI’s Sora. Kudos to Toys R Us for trusting me to direct this Jeffrey the Giraffe origin story.”
Kleverov also revealed more details about the AI video’s creation process in subsequent answers to X’s questions, writing that Sora “allows you to explore your imagination…on the go.”
Venture Beat has reached out to both Native Foreign and Toys R Us for more information on the ad and will update when we hear back.
More momentum for Sora and AI video in general
OpenAI released Sora in February to a limited number of creators selected by the company. It’s not yet generally available to the public, as the company said it wants to continue to “tweak” the model — that is, test it for potential abuse — and get feedback from its initial small group of users.
OpenAI has since expanded access to the text-to-video platform to other filmmakers and premiered five short films made entirely using Sora at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in June.
Sora was also used by director Paul Trillo to make the first-ever AI music video for indie chillwave musician Washed Out, which premiered online in early May 2024.
Native Foreign and Kleverov were among the first few filmmakers to access Sora from OpenAI. Kleverov said in an OpenAI blog post in March that Sora can “quickly iterate on creative for brand partners” and remove the ability for budgets to shape narratives.
Elements of the last Toys R Us video appeared in Kleverov’s first video published by OpenAI, specifically the bike shop featured at the beginning. (The bike repair sign is greatly improved in the final video and no longer reads “repaich.”)
Of course, OpenAI is far from the only company making AI-generated videos a reality. Runway demonstrated the next generation of its Gen-3 Alpha video model, which can make 10-second videos, and Luma AI, Kling and Pika Labs offer AI text-to-video models for public use, despite concerns that these models may be infringe copyright by teaching on copyrighted videos without permission, consent or payment.
Runway is among the companies being sued by artists for just that reason, part of a growing wave of litigation against AI generative media tool companies.
