Tim Brooks, co-lead on OpenAI’s video generation project Sora, has left the company to join Google DeepMind, Google’s AI research division.
Brooks, who had been co-leading the development of Sora with William Peebles, announced his move on X, formerly Twitter, and shared his excitement about working on video generation technologies and “world simulators” at DeepMind. Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, welcomed Brooks and expressed his confidence in Brooks’ role in making world simulators a reality. The exact meaning of “world simulators” remains somewhat ambiguous, but DeepMind’s recent advancements, including their Genie model that can generate virtual worlds from various media, align with this direction.
Thrilled to welcome @_tim_brooks to @GoogleDeepMind. So excited to be working together to make the long-standing dream of a world simulator a reality!! https://t.co/dJrvXjMRBQ
— Demis Hassabis (@demishassabis) October 3, 2024
Brooks was among the early developers of Sora, having spearheaded the project at OpenAI in January 2023, directing its research and model training. His departure comes at a challenging time for Sora, which has yet to be released but is reportedly facing technical issues.
The initial version of the system, revealed earlier this year, required over 10 minutes to generate a one-minute video clip, positioning it behind competing systems from Luma and Runway, as reported by The Information. OpenAI is currently working on improving Sora’s performance to accelerate video clip generation.
Google Deepens Focus on Video Generation with Veo
Google, meanwhile, has its own video generation model, Veo, which it unveiled at its I/O developer conference earlier this year. The Veo model is slated to be integrated into YouTube Shorts, enabling creators to generate backgrounds and short clips.
Additionally, OpenAI has lost ground in forming partnerships with prominent players in the video generation industry. Runway, a competitor, recently signed a deal with Lionsgate to develop a custom video model, while Stability AI recruited renowned director James Cameron to its board for their video generation efforts.
OpenAI had been attempting to establish its own relationships with filmmakers and studios, including showcasing Sora at Cannes earlier this year. Former CTO Mira Murati represented OpenAI at the event, but a long-term collaboration with a major production house has not yet been secured.
OpenAI Sees More High-Profile Departures
Brooks’ departure is part of a broader wave of resignations at OpenAI. Several high-profile figures, including CTO Mira Murati, chief research officer Bob McGrew, and research VP Barret Zoph, left the company in late September. Other notable departures in recent months include research scientist Andrej Karpathy, co-founder John Schulman, ex-safety leader Jan Leike, and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.
