It appears that users in the EU and UK will not be able to access Sora (OpenAI's video generation model) at launch.
A newly published help page on OpenAI's website lists the regions supported by Sora's “Web and Mobile” and omits all EU countries. OpenAI notes on its page that accessing Sora from outside the listed regions may result in account ban or termination.
Sora doesn't seem to be available in the EU and UK https://t.co/WYnARYueHc pic.twitter.com/ApRbL3iH8S
— Tibor Blaho (@btibor91) December 9, 2024
We have reached out to OpenAI for comment and will update this article if we hear back.
This isn't the first time OpenAI has skipped an EU country for its first product launch. When the company started rolling out ChatGPT's human-like conversation feature, Advanced Voice Mode, this summer, EU users were left out of the initial wave.
In a statement provided to TechRadar this fall, OpenAI said the delay in Advanced Voice Mode was due to “additional external review” required in some regions. “this is, [our] This feature is in line with local requirements,” a spokesperson told the publication at the time. “these [reviews] It may take some time. ”
Advanced voice mode was made available to most EU customers in October.
Other tech companies working on AI models and products, such as Meta and Microsoft, have also been forced to postpone AI product releases in the EU due to the EU's complex data privacy regulations. Meta has been particularly vocal about compliance requirements it considers onerous, supporting an open letter earlier this year calling for a “modern interpretation” of European privacy law, saying it “does not reject this”. Ta. [AI] progress. “