Sept 29 (Reuters) - OpenAI is planning to release a new

version of its Sora generator that creates videos featuring

copyrighted material, unless rights holders opt out of having

their work appear, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday,

citing people familiar with the matter.

The artificial intelligence startup began notifying talent

agencies and studios over the past week about the opt-out

process and the product, which it plans to release in the coming

days, the report said.

The new process would mean movie studios and other

intellectual property owners would have to explicitly ask OpenAI

not to include their copyrighted material in videos Sora

creates, according to the report.

While copyrighted characters will require an opt-out, the

new product will not generate images of recognizable public

figures without their permission, the Journal said.

Separately, Wired reported on Monday that OpenAI is

preparing to launch a standalone app for Sora 2, featuring a

vertical video feed with swipe-to-scroll navigation, resembling

TikTok.

Users would be able to create videos that are up to 10

seconds long, using Sora, according to documents viewed by

Wired. There is no option to upload photos or videos from a

user's camera roll or other apps.

The app has an identity verification feature that allows

users to confirm their likeness, Wired said. If a user has

verified their identity, they can use their likeness in videos.

OpenAI launched the app internally last week and received

overwhelmingly positive feedback from employees, the report

said.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for

comment on both the media reports.

Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI launched Sora in December

last year, expanding its foray into multimodal AI technologies

and competing with similar text-to-video tools from Meta

and Alphabet's Google, along with Stability

AI's Stable Video Diffusion.

Last week, Meta unveiled Vibes, a platform where users can

create and share short-form, AI-generated videos.