The mono-monikered director Lenski has come aboard the roster of production company Salmon for commercial representation in Canada. He was previously repped in the Canadian ad market by Merchant. Lenski, who continues to be repped in the U.S. and U.K. by Arts & Sciences, is not only an accomplished commercial director but also a successful TV and film director. As part of the first wave of AI-era filmmakers, he continues to explore emerging tools while keeping the human core of his storytelling. His notable work includes channeling Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in Domino’s “Home for Pizza”; encouraging Americans to take a stress-free “Maple Leave” north of the border for Destination Canada; bringing an unapologetic dose of Lionel Richie to an Acrisure campaign; helming EA Sports’ Madden 17 film starring Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller–where Miller unveiled surprisingly sharp dance moves alongside a crew of colorful doppelgangers in a playful riff on Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” urging gamers to “start me”; and directing a promo for the beloved, award-winning series Schitt’s Creek. Off set, Lenski is the creator and editorial director of Film Worms–The Underground Film School for Kids, a Substack-born watchlist for families seeking screen time that’s offbeat, beautiful, strange, and slightly subversive. What started as a response to his own six-year-old asking, “Can I watch something?” has grown into a community-driven “wormhole” celebrating VHS-era oddities, hand-drawn animation, and films that spark curiosity….
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