OpenAI’s Sora Video Model Skips EU and UK: Regional Availability Revealed
OpenAI’s Sora video model won’t be available at first in the EU or UK. The new help page enumerates the regions where Sora will be available and cautions users against using it in restricted areas to prevent account closure.
Users in the EU and UK won’t be able to use Sora OpenAI’s video generation model when it first comes out. OpenAI’s website has a new help page that enumerates the locations where you can use Sora “on web and mobile,” but it excludes any EU countries.
The page from OpenAI warns that using Sora outside of the listed areas may result in an account ban or suspension. Our team has asked OpenAI for their thoughts and will make changes to this article if we hear back.
It’s not the first time OpenAI has launched a product without going to an EU country first. For EU users, the company didn’t start rolling out Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT until this summer. This mode lets you talk to the bot like you would with a real person.
OpenAI said in a statement to TechRadar this fall that the delay in Advanced Voice Mode was because some territories needed “additional external reviews.” A spokesperson for the company told the news outlet at the time, “This is a common practice to make sure our feature aligns with local requirements.” This kind of review might take a while.
EU Data Privacy Laws Delay AI Product Launches
Advanced Voice Mode came out in October for most customers in the EU. The EU’s stringent data privacy regulations have forced tech companies such as Microsoft and Meta, who are developing AI models and products, to postpone the release of their products in the EU.
Meta has made its feelings clear about compliance requirements that it thinks are too strict. Earlier this year, it signed an open letter calling for “a modern interpretation” of European privacy laws that doesn’t “reject AI progress.”
