OpenAI stops 'disrespectful' Martin Luther King Jr deepfakes

OpenAI has stopped its artificial intelligence (AI) app Sora creating deepfake videos portraying Dr Martin Luther King Jr, following a request from his estate.

The company acknowledged the video generator had created "disrespectful" content about the civil rights campaigner.

Sora has gone viral in the US due to its ability to make hyper-realistic videos, which has led to people sharing faked scenes of deceased celebrities and historical figures in bizarre and often offensive scenarios.

OpenAI said it would pause images of Dr King "as it strengthens guardrails for historical figures" - but it continues to allow people to make clips of other high profile individuals.

That approach has proved controversial, as videos featuring figures such as President John F. Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth II and Professor Stephen Hawking have been shared widely online.

It led Zelda Williams, the daughter of Robin Williams, to ask people to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her father, the celebrated US actor and comic who died in 2014.

Bernice A. King, the daughter of the late Dr King, later made a similar public plea, writing online: "I concur concerning my father. Please stop."

Among the AI-generated videos depicting the civil rights campaigner were some editing his infamous "I Have a Dream" speech in various ways, with the Washington Post reporting one clip showed him making racist noises.

Meanwhile others shared on the Sora app and across social media showed figures resembling Dr King and fellow civil rights campaigner Malcolm X fighting one another.

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