Psyop has appointed Shannon Lewis as global director of new business, where she will help lead worldwide growth, sales and partnership strategies. Lewis joins from Passion Pictures, where she spent more than 15 years helping shape the company’s U.S. new business efforts and creative trajectory. Throughout her career, Lewis was closely involved in bringing in and supporting innovative, culture-forward work across animation, live action, and mixed media. Her credits include Apple’s Primetime Emmy-winning “Fuzzy Feeling” commercial, the recent and much-lauded Cinnamon Toast Crunch “Must Cinnadust,” and the award-winning NBA “The Gift of Game,” as well as collaborations with Riot Games such as the brand’s “Jinx” music video. Lewis steps into a studio in motion. Under Psyop Media Group’s CEO Matt Hunnicutt, a new, creative ecosystem is being built as part of an ambitious next chapter. Lewis will drive that momentum forward by connecting brands and agencies with the independent network’s global collective of directors, artists, and AI technologists as Psyop continues to expand its creative footprint across animation, live action, gaming, and emerging technologies. Lewis will oversee worldwide sales and brand partnership efforts, working in lockstep with leadership and talent as part of Psyop’s evolution. Her arrival builds on a broader strategy to dimensionalize Psyop’s offering and deepen its reputation as a multidisciplinary creative partner at the intersection of technology and future-facing craft. Psyop directors and creative partner studios are based in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, London, Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen, Madrid, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Tokyo….
OpenAI pulls the plug on Sora, the viral AI video app that sparked deepfake concerns
OpenAI is shutting down its social media app Sora, which went viral last fall as a place to share short-form videos generated by artificial intelligence but also raised alarms in Hollywood and elsewhere.
OpenAI said in a brief social media message Tuesday that it was "saying goodbye to the Sora app" and that it would share more soon about how to preserve what users already created on the app.
"What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing," it said.
The company behind ChatGPT released Sora in September as an attempt to capture the attention, and potentially advertising dollars, that follow short-form videos on TikTok, YouTube or Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook.
But a growing chorus of advocacy groups, academics and experts expressed concern about the dangers of letting people create AI videos on just about anything they can type into a prompt, leading to the proliferation of nonconsensual images and realistic deepfakes in a sea of less harmful "AI slop."
OpenAI was forced to crack down on AI creations of public figures — among them, Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mister Rogers — doing outlandish things, but only after an outcry from family estates and an actors' union.
Disney, which made a deal with OpenAI last year to bring its characters to Sora, said in a statement Tuesday that it respects "OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere."
"We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators," Disney's... Read More