OpenAI Bans AI-Created Martin Luther King Jr. Videos on Sora

In a post on Instagram last week, Dr. Bernice King, the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., asked OpenAI’s Sora users to “please stop” sending her AI videos depicting her father.

Now, after “disrespectful depictions” of King’s likeness began emerging on OpenAI’s popular AI video generation app, users will no longer be able to create videos of the late civil rights leader at the request of his estate, OpenAI announced on Thursday.

“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,” OpenAI said in a post on X that has been viewed over one million times. OpenAI added that other “authorized representatives or estate owners can request that their likeness not be used in Sora cameos.”

Statement from OpenAI and King Estate, Inc.

The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. (King, Inc.) and OpenAI have worked together to address how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s likeness is represented in Sora generations. Some users generated disrespectful depictions of Dr.…

— OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom) October 17, 2025

OpenAI imposed this restriction on AI video output weeks after launching its Sora social video platform, which allows users to generate realistic AI videos of historical figures, their friends, and their own likeness.

One Sora video viewed by The Guardian featured King telling a gas station clerk about his dream that one day, all slushy drinks will be free — as he grabs the drink and runs out. Another Sora clip depicts King wrestling with fellow civil rights activist Malcolm X.

Videos have also emerged with President John F. Kennedy and Whitney Houston, according to TechCrunch. Earlier this month, Zelda Williams also asked people to stop generating AI videos of her father, Robin Williams.

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The app debuted on Sept. 30 in the U.S. and Canada and hit one million downloads in five days, despite being invitation-only, achieving the milestone faster than ChatGPT. It became the most-downloaded iPhone app in the U.S. and is still the top free app on the Apple App Store at the time of writing.

Despite its popularity, the app has resulted in concerns about misinformation and AI slop, or low-quality AI content flooding the web, per Bloomberg. It has also raised questions about how social media platforms should process AI videos of copyrighted material, like SpongeBob and Pokémon. Sora users are already generating videos of the famous cartoons.

Meanwhile, in the weeks since its launch, OpenAI has added restrictions to Sora by giving copyright holders more control over what kinds of videos can be created with their intellectual property, if any at all.

OpenAI also noted that it was exploring ways to monetize AI video generation and planned to share some of this revenue with copyright holders.

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In a post on Instagram last week, Dr. Bernice King, the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., asked OpenAI’s Sora users to “please stop” sending her AI videos depicting her father.

Now, after “disrespectful depictions” of King’s likeness began emerging on OpenAI’s popular AI video generation app, users will no longer be able to create videos of the late civil rights leader at the request of his estate, OpenAI announced on Thursday.

“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,” OpenAI said in a post on X that has been viewed over one million times. OpenAI added that other “authorized representatives or estate owners can request that their likeness not be used in Sora cameos.”