Anyone in the U.S. can now use Sora, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence video generator, which the company announced Monday will be made publicly available. OpenAI first introduced Sora in February, but it was only available to select artists, filmmakers and security testers. However, OpenAI’s website was not allowing new signups for Sora in several places on Monday due to heavy traffic.

Sora is known as a text-to-video generator, a tool that can create AI video clips based on a user’s written prompts. An example on OpenAI’s website shows “a wide, tranquil shot of a family of woolly mammoths in an open desert.” The video shows a group of three extinct animals slowly walking through sand dunes.

“We hope this early version of Sora will enable people around the world to explore new forms of creativity, tell their stories, and push the boundaries of what is possible with video storytelling,” OpenAI wrote in a Blog post.

OpenAI is known for its popular chatbot ChatGPT, but has also expanded into other forms of generative AI. It is working on a voice cloning tool and has integrated an image generation tool, Dall-E, into ChatGPT’s features. The Microsoft-backed company is a leader in the emerging AI market and is now worth nearly $160 billion.

Ahead of today’s release of Sora, OpenAI had tech reviewer Marques Brownlee test the tool. He said the results were “shocking and inspiring at the same time.” Brownlee said Sora did well with landscapes and stylistic effects, but had difficulty portraying basic physics realistically. Some filmmakers who were also granted a preview said the tool produced strange visual defects.

OpenAI is understood to still be working on compliance issues with the Online Safety Act in the UK and the Digital Services Act and GDPR in the EU.

Two weeks ago, the company blocked all access to the tool when a group of artists created a backdoor that allowed anyone to use it. In a statement posted on the AI ​​community site Hugging Face, they accused OpenAI of “art laundering,” a product that would steal the livelihoods of artists like them. The “Sora PR Puppets,” as they called themselves, said the company tries to spread a positive story for its product by working with creative people.

Although generative AI has improved significantly in the last year, it is still prone to hallucinations, false reactions and plagiarism. AI image generators also often produce unrealistic images, such as people with multiple arms or misplaced facial features.

Critics warn that this type of AI video technology could be abused by bad actors for disinformation, fraud and deepfakes. There have already been fake videos of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky supposedly calling for a ceasefire and Kamala Harris supposedly calling herself “the ultimate diversity worker.”

OpenAI said in its blog post that it will initially limit certain people’s uploads and block content containing nudity. The company said it additionally blocks “particularly harmful forms of abuse, such as child sexual abuse materials and sexual deepfakes.”

Sora will be available to users who have already subscribed and paid for OpenAI’s tools. People in the US and “most countries worldwide” will have access to the tool, but it will not be available in the UK or Europe due to copyright issues.