What could Sora mean for translators in the creative sector?

If you’re working in or for the creative industry, you’ll probably have heard of Sora — Open AI’s revolutionary text-to-video tool, which was soft launched in February 2024. It’s currently only accessible to a select group of testers, including domain experts, designers, and film-makers. Neither its formal launch date nor its pricing options are clear at the moment.

So, why is this new generative AI tool already causing a stir in the creative community? And how could it affect marketing translators and other linguists in the creative sector in the future? Let’s find out.

What exactly is Sora?

Open AI describes Sora as an “AI model that can create realistic and imaginative scenes from text instructions”. These prompts don’t have to be elaborate to create stunning visuals. You could even just provide an existing image or video and ask for it to be altered.

TechRadar has given a good simplified overview of how Sora works here. For lay people like me, it’s probably enough to know that this “world simulator” tool has been trained on millions of existing videos and images and then teaches itself how to create unique new ones on demand. It also understands context better than other generative video or image tools, though it’s not perfect (yet).

What types of video can Sora create?

At the moment, Sora can create HD videos with a length of up to one minute. Presumably, future versions will be able to produce longer films.

In terms of content, there are a lot of possibilities. You can see many sample Sora videos on Open AI’s YouTube channel.

For example, the prompt “A movie trailer featuring a 30-year-old space man wearing a red wool knitted motorcycle helmet, blue sky, salt desert, cinematic style, shot on 35 mm film, vivid colours” produced this impressive film trailer.

What isn’t clear at the moment is how many languages Sora will support when it launches. I assume it will be similar to ChatGPT, which supports more than 50.

Open AI’s Sora website itself doesn’t mention automatic subtitling and translation capabilities, though it would only be sensible to offer this in future versions. For now, it is definitely possible to use other AI tools to generate sound and subtitles for Sora videos.

Some ethical considerations around the use of Sora

As you can imagine, not everyone is overjoyed by the introduction of this tool. Sora is seen as a milestone for achieving AGI, the point where AI develops human-like (or higher) intelligence. But even if this isn’t the case, let’s look at some other major ethical concerns:

The possibility of misinformation/disinformation

Deepfakes are already a problem, not only in this election year. An advanced AI tool like Sora could pose real risks in terms of misinformation and disinformation.

The team working on Sora knows this and is already putting in place some safety procedures to avoid harm:

• Domain experts in areas like “misinformation, hateful content, and bias” are testing the tool.
• A “text classifier” will check for harmful content, such as “extreme violence, sexual content, hateful imagery, celebrity likeness, or the IP of others”.
• A selection of policymakers, educators, and artists are being consulted, too.

At the same time, the team is open about the possibility that their tool could be abused in ways they haven’t foreseen. This is, of course, worrying.

Likely job losses in the creative industry

Sora opens up the possibility of creating powerful videos with very little effort and (presumably) little money in the near future. If that’s the case, this may well be the end of the creative industry as we know it. From advertising to film-making, tools like Sora could make many roles in these sectors obsolete.

James Hawes, vice-chairman of Directors UK, already believes that AI could replace scriptwriters, actors, and videographers within the next three to five years. While not everybody is convinced of the current scriptwriting quality of today’s AI tools, it’s bound to get better. 

Many 3D artists on Reddit are also concerned, fearing that AI tools will “do the heavy lifting”, potentially rendering creative teams “useless” in the near future. 

Possible negative effects for marketing translators and other linguists

With videos having been shown to be more impactful than text, there could be a significant shift in e-commerce marketing. For example, retailers may rely more on AI-generated videos for “dynamic product demonstrations” rather than on more expensive advertising/marketing copy and translations.

E-learning content could also see a switch from text-based copy to video.

Whether a future version of Sora will be much better at understanding context and nuance in terms of automatic subtitling remains to be seen, though it wouldn’t be surprising. This could, of course, have serious consequences for audiovisual translators.

And: if Sora has an impact on the type and number of general marketing/advertising projects, all creatives in this sector — including translators — will face more competition in future, too. 

Having said that, it’s unlikely that tools like Sora will take over completely. Human linguists will still be needed to check AI-generated translations and audiovisual content. The question is: how many?

Could AI fatigue be a blessing?

Brands that are just after “good-enough” copy likely will invest more heavily in AI tools. It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Some argue that the predicted flood of new AI-generated content may actually help human creatives in the long run:

“AI will lose its appeal once every single man and his dog is pumping out AI made art, photos and films on a daily basis. AI fatigue will set in real fast. It might even kick off a new renaissance of rediscovered human creativity.”

Comment by u/ProgrammerV2 from Reddit discussion in blender

Personally, I have already seen LinkedIn job ads posted by content writing agencies that specifically ask for applicants who don’t use AI writing tools. Higher-end businesses in other areas may well revert to valuing human creativity, too.

What should translators in the creative industry do to prepare?

We don’t know yet how effective Sora and future AI translation tools will be. We can take an educated guess, though: the creative sector will most likely become a lot more competitive in the next few years. 

Here are some ideas marketing translators and other linguists working in the creative industry could try in the meantime:

• Adding SEO content writing as well as social media marketing to their skill set could bring additional income (at least for the time being).
• Specialising in areas that are potentially safer from AI takeover could be wise (e.g. medical translation).
• Investing heavily in CPD and business skills to stand out is always a good call.
• Networking and helping each other rather than just competing is essential. This echoes a point Jonathan Downie makes in an interesting article about the effect of AI interpreting tools on human interpreters (“Embrace the Machine”, The Linguist [Vol. 63/No. 1]).

Yes, there could be less work all round for many people in the creative industry if AI tools like Sora evolve quickly. 

For now, translators in the creative industry shouldn’t panic. But: it’s wise to monitor these developments and think strategically about the likely effects on their businesses.

PS. You’d still like a bit of human help with planning, writing or translating your digital marketing copy (EN<>DE) ? Great. Let’s chat.

Thanks to Greg Glazer, whose LinkedIn post led me down a Sora rabbit hole.