OpenAI celebrates 12 days of 'shipmas' with the launch of Sora and a new reasoning model.

OpenAI has announced a special 12-day period of new releases, known as "shipmas," which will begin on December 5th. During this time, the artificial intelligence company will unveil a variety of features, products, and demonstrations, including the highly anticipated text-to-video AI tool called Sora, along with a new reasoning model.

OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, made the announcement during the New York Times DealBook conference, although he did not reveal specific details about the innovations that will be presented. Each day, from the start of the event, something new will be introduced or demonstrated.

Before the launch, some OpenAI employees began generating excitement on social media. One technical staff member expressed, "What's on your Christmas list?" Another employee commented that they had returned just in time to decorate the "shipmas" tree. Bill Peebles, the project lead for Sora, responded to one of these messages stating that OpenAI is "incredibly back."

The arrival of Sora comes shortly after a group of artists expressed their discontent, alleging that the company benefits from their creative work without adequate compensation. Despite this, hundreds of artists have been testing Sora in an invitation-only research preview, allowing them to generate videos with this new tool. In March, former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati mentioned that Sora would be available before the end of the year.

As the launch of Sora approaches, Google has also introduced its new generative video model, Veo, aimed at helping businesses create content. Veo, which was revealed in May, is now in private preview through Google’s Vertex AI platform.

Among the 12 surprises from OpenAI, it is anticipated that one may include a Santa-inspired voice for ChatGPT, as some users have discovered code suggesting a new snowflake-shaped voice mode button.