The Cameos feature on Sora is well worth a blog of its own, as it is a bold gambit on the part of OpenAI. The gambit is that people will become increasingly comfortable with not only seeing and sharing creating deepfakes of other people, but even of themselves.
The Five Most-Key Takeaways from This Blog Post
- Cameos allows you to use the likeness of others to create your own Sora videos.
- Celebrities who signed on for Cameos include Shaq and Mark Cuban and iJustine.
- Users can create their own Cameos, so if you have never been bungee jumping you can see what it would look like for you to bungee jump on Sora.
- Cameos do not have to be of people, as you can create Cameos of fictional beings like the Sora cloud. However, there have been instances of people bypassing Content Guidelines to create Cameos from people who did not or cannot give their permission to be Cameo’d. E.g., John Lennon and the “John Lemmon” “character” you can Cameo to get a John Lennon Sora vid.
- Business owners should take note of this, as this could be the formation of a coming wave of a widespread normalization of using deepfakes in marketing endeavors.
The Significance for Business Owners
Have you made a deepfake of yourself yet?
If not, do you think you ever will?
If your answer to that is no, then what if it became a norm, to where not having a deepfake version of yourself in pictures and videos and even audio-only content became widespread?
Even if it’s not exactly peer pressure at work, the phenomenon of widespread acceptance of deepfakes may gain plenty of traction of a bandwagon effect of sorts.
And as a business owner, bandwagon effects certainly have a strong influence at times. After all, hopping on the bandwagon can be from more than fear of missing out (FOMO). Instead, it can be FAFB (fear of falling behind).
But be sure of it, if it feels like a trend to you, then be apprised that this will be a mighty-long bandwagon ride. Expect gen-A.I. deepfakes to be a mainstay in the media environments we are used to.
The Cubester Method: Mark Cuban’s Sora Marketing Strategy
If you want a sense of how some business owners are making use of deepfakes of themselves to promote their brand, then consider the case of Mark Cuban.
If you are not on Sora, then be apprised that his gen-A.I. videos have plenty of surreal humor and silliness, showcasing a willingness to really play with his own image. Or, to sell playfulness and silliness as part of his image. Or to just get people’s eyes on his Sora videos.
And if your eyes happen to be on his Sora videos, then you will notice a graphic that advertises his pharmaceutical company Cost Plus Drugs. Even when the video has absolutely nothing to do with pharmaceuticals whatsoever, the logo may still pop up toward the end of the video.
This strategy shows that you do not even need to create straightforward ads with gen A.I. to still find a branding opportunity.
By creating entertaining content with the branded logo popping up, Cuban is leveraging the platform almost more like traditional broadcast entertainment. Part of the entertainment here is seeing a high-profile public figure have fun with his image by deepfaking himself.
That being, the structure is you get some entertainment, then you get some advertising.
This strategy is noteworthy, as business owners’ minds may immediately be going toward just generating straightforward ads with generative A.I..
Instead, there are opportunities for outside-of-the-box approaches, with The Cubester’s entertainment-and-logo being just one example.
Eye-catching content that gets people’s attention first then exposes them to branding elements like a logo could very well be a strategy that will catch on among those who are paying attention to how business owners are using Sora’s Cameos feature.
What’s in a Cameo?
The term “deepfakes” has certain connotations, one of which is that these are made without the permission of the deepfaked individual.
As such, there is clearly some strategy in OpenAI employing the term “cameo”, which implies the giving of permission.
In the moving-pictures industry, a cameo involves celebs or cultural figures of some renown stepping into the picture frame, willingly lending their image.
Titling the feature Cameos creates a more-positive association for viewers who would preemptively call the content they are seeing deepfakes. Instead, OpenAI is boldly distinguishing a new separate category from deepfakes, where a Cameo has the whiff of officiality and permission hanging over it.
The Last (But Not Least) Key Takeaway from This Blog Post
Business owners should be aware that deepfakes of everyone from celebrities to local business owners will be a widespread phenomenon in the near future, and if they are interested should decide on strategies for incorporating this practice.
Other Great GO AI Blog Posts
GO AI the blog offers a combination of information about, analysis of, and editorializing on A.I. technologies of interest to business owners, with especial focus on the impact this tech will have on commerce as a whole.
On a usual week, there are multiple GO AI blog posts going out. Here are some notable recent articles:
- For Businesses and Other Organizations, What Makes a Successful Chatbot?
- IBM Watson vs. ChatGPT vs. Gemini: How Will Each Affect Search Engines?
- Using A.I. to Find Resources for Business Owners
- How Would Restricting Open-Source A.I. Affect Business Owners?
- The EU’s A.I. Act Has Become Law: The Implications for Business Owners (Especially American)
In addition to our GO AI blog, we also have a blog that offers important updates in the world of search engine optimization (SEO), with blog posts like “Google Ends Its Plan to End Third-Party Cookies”.
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