--- title: "Another OpenAI Executive Choked When Asked If Sora Was Trained on YouTube Data" description: "Caught Slippin' Yet another OpenAI executive has been caught lacking on camera when asked if the company's new Sora video generator was trained using YouTube videos. During a recent talk at Bloomberg's Tech Summit in San Francisco, OpenAI chief operating officer Brad Lightcap went off on a word vomit-style monologue in the wrong direction in an […]" date: "2024-05-13" modified: "2024-05-13" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-executive-choked-sora-youtube" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "OpenAI" - "sora" - "the digest" - "YouTube" --- # Another OpenAI Executive Choked When Asked If Sora Was Trained on YouTube Data ![Yet another OpenAI executive has been caught lacking on camera when asked if the Sora video generator was trained using YouTube videos.]() *\Image: Costfoto / NurPhoto via Getty / Futurism\* ## Flummoxed Yet another OpenAI executive has been caught lacking on camera when asked if the company's new Sora video generator was [trained using YouTube videos](). During a recent talk at *Bloomberg*'s Tech Summit in San Francisco, OpenAI chief operating officer [Brad Lightcap went off]() on a word vomit-style monologue in the wrong direction in an attempt to deflect from questions about Sora's training data. "Can you say, and clear up once and for all, whether Sora was trained on YouTube data?" *Bloomberg*'s Shirin Ghaffary asked the COO, prompting a wordy non-response. "Yeah, I mean, look, the conversation around data is really important," Lightcap said. "We obviously, like, need to know, kind of, where data comes from." After a long-winded description of a future "content ID system for AI" that would allow creators to opt in and out of their content being used as training data, the executive seemed to come even closer than [OpenAI's chief technology officer Mira Murati]() to admitting that Sora was trained on data from YouTube. "So, yeah, we're looking at this problem," Lightcap said. "It's really hard." He went on to say that while OpenAI doesn't "have all the answers" to this "hard" question, it may "by 2026." "So no answer on the YouTube," Ghaffary quipped back. "For now." ## Confirmation Bias Natually, Lightcap's on-camera gaffe draws comparison to Murati's similar cringe-inducing foible in March, when in [an interview with the *Wall Street Journal*](), the CTO also choked when asked directly if Sora was trained on YouTube data. "We used publicly available data and licensed data," Murati said. "So, videos on YouTube?" the *WSJ*'s Joanna Stern followed up. "I'm actually not sure about that," the CTO responded, and after a protracted back and forth attempted to explain herself by saying that although she thought the data was "publicly available," she was "not confident" about it. Following that awkward exchange, Murati confirmed to the newspaper that Shutterstock videos had been used, but the jury's technically still out on whether YouTube videos were also part of the Sora training data — though as one finance journalist joked, the Lightcap retort all but confirms that it was. "That is a hard yes in AI speak," *Sherwood News*' [Rani Molla tweeted](), later adding that "[the answer is somehow worse than yes]()." **More on Sora:** [*Turns Out That Extremely Impressive Sora Demo... Wasn't Exactly Made With Sora*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()