Alibaba’s AI video generator just dunked on Sora by making the Sora lady sing

Alibaba wants you to compare its new AI video generator to OpenAI’s Sora. Otherwise, why use it to make Sora’s most famous creation belt out a Dua Lipa song?

On Tuesday, an organization called the “Institute for Intelligent Computing” within the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba released a paper about an intriguing new AI video generator it has developed that’s shockingly good at turning still images of faces into passable actors and charismatic singers. The system is called EMO, a fun backronym supposedly drawn from the words “Emotive Portrait Alive” (though, in that case, why is it not called “EPO”?).

EMO is a peek into a future where a system like Sora makes video worlds, and rather than being populated by attractive mute people just kinda looking at each other, the “actors” in these AI creations say stuff — or even sing.

Alibaba put demo videos on GitHub to show off its new video-generating framework. These include a video of …