WASHINGTON: OpenAI suspended its Sora 2 artificial intelligence tool on Thursday from creating videos of civil rights icon Martin Luther King after his estate complained about disrespectful depictions.

The slain civil rights leader’s estate and OpenAI announced the decision in a joint statement late on Thursday, saying the company would pause generations depicting King while it “strengthens guardrails for historical figures”.

The move comes as families of deceased celebrities and leaders have expressed outrage over OpenAI’s Sora 2 video tool, which allows users to create realistic-looking clips of historical figures without family consent.

Some users had generated videos showing King making monkey noises during his I Have a Dream speech and other demeaning content, according to The Washington Post.

Videos reanimating other dead figures, including Malcolm X, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Amy Winehouse, have flooded social media since Sora 2’s launch on Sept 30.

“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,” the joint statement said.

The company said authorised representatives or estate owners can now request that their likenesses not be used in the AI-generated videos, known as “Sora cameos”. OpenAI thanked Bernice King, King’s daughter who serves on behalf of the estate, “for reaching out”.

The text-to-video tool has rocketed to the top of download charts since its launch, but sparked immediate controversy.

Actor Robin Williams’s daughter Zelda Williams pleaded with people on Instagram to “stop sending me AI videos of dad”, calling the content “maddening”.

Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm, told Washington Post it was “deeply disrespectful” to see her father’s image used in crude and insensitive AI videos.

Malcolm X was assassinated in front of Shabazz in 1965 when she was two years old.

OpenAI had initially exempted “historical figures” from consent requirements when it launched Sora 2 last month, allowing anyone to create fake videos resurrecting public figures.

Sora 2 has already raised opposition from Hollywood, with the creative industry furious at OpenAI’s opt-out policy when it came to the use of its copyrighted characters and content in generated videos.

Disney sent a sharply worded letter to OpenAI in late September stating it “is not required to opt out of inclusion of its works” to preserve its copyright rights.

Amid the pushback, OpenAI promised that it would give more “granular control” to rights holders.

After the launch of the Sora 2 app, the tool usually refused requests for videos featuring Disney or Marvel characters, some users said.

However, clips showing characters from other US franchises, as well as Japanese characters from popular game and anime series, were widely shared.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2025