One of the co-leads on OpenAI‘s video generator, Sora, has departed the company to join Google DeepMind. Tim Brooks, who led Sora‘s development alongside William Peebles, announced his move to Google’s AI research division on social media platform X (earlier Twitter). Brooks said that he will continue his work on video generation technologies and “world simulators” in Google DeepMind.
In the X post, Brooks wrote: “I will be joining @GoogleDeepMind to work on video generation and world simulators! Can’t wait to collaborate with such a talented team. I had an amazing two years at OpenAI making Sora. Thank you to all the passionate and kind people I worked with. Excited for the next chapter!”
Replying to Brook’s X post, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis shared a welcome note. He said: “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!!”
Google DeepMind describes “world simulators” as AI models that are capable of generating interactive virtual worlds. The company applied it to its recently released Genie model, which can create playable and controllable virtual environments from various sources, including synthesised images, real photographs, and even simple sketches.
In a 2023 research paper, DeepMind explains: “Applications of a real-world simulator range from controllable content creation in games and movies to training embodied agents purely in simulation that can be directly deployed in the real world.”
Brooks, who co-led the Sora project from its inception in January 2023, played a crucial role in shaping its research direction and large model training. His departure comes at a critical time for Sora, which is reportedly facing technical challenges that could hinder its competitiveness against rival video generation systems.
These challenges include slow processing times, with early versions of Sora reportedly taking over 10 minutes to generate a one-minute video clip. While OpenAI is reportedly working on an improved version, Brooks’ departure may impact the project’s progress.
Google also has its video generation model, Veo, which was unveiled at the I/O developer conference earlier this year. The company recently announced that Veo will soon be integrated into YouTube Shorts which will enable creators to generate backgrounds and short video clips.
