OpenAI Brings Character Cameos to Sora, Letting Users Turn Pets and Objects Into Video Stars

OpenAI just gave Sora a dose of star power.

The company’s latest update lets users turn their pets, doodles, and favorite objects into recurring “character cameos” in AI-generated videos — transforming everyday items into digital co-stars. The feature expands Sora’s creative toolkit only weeks after the video app’s explosive debut.

“You’ve already been able to create videos of your own cameo — now you can create cameos of the characters in your life and imagination: your cat, a plushie, a doodle, or an original persona dreamt up in Sora,” according to OpenAI’s release notes.

The launch comes at a moment when AI content and identity control are being heavily debated. It also comes right after Cameo, the celebrity-video app, filed a trademark suit against OpenAI over the term “cameo.”

How character cameos work

With this update, Sora users can upload a short clip of an object or animal and turn it into a reusable, animated figure for use in future videos. Each character gets its own name and handle, appearing in scenes whenever it’s tagged.

“Once created, each character comes with its own permissions, separate from your personal likeness: keep it just for yourself, share it with mutual followers, or open it to everyone on Sora,” OpenAI explained in its release notes.

To kick things off, OpenAI included a few seasonal characters such as Frankenstein and Dracula.

Pets, plushies, and anything fun — but not people

Character cameos are designed only for animals and objects. OpenAI makes it clear they are not meant to recreate real human likenesses without consent: “Character cameos are for objects and animals only. They’re not for real people,” OpenAI wrote.

This comes as concerns persist around AI and deepfakes. With this approach, users can still participate, even if they are uncomfortable with scanning their face into Sora.

Alongside character cameos, OpenAI has added a few other creative features. Users can now stitch several clips together directly inside Sora to build longer scenes and more complex stories. According to the release notes, stitching allows creators to: “connect the videos… [and] create more sophisticated narratives and extend your story, with granular control over each segment.” 

Sora also now displays leaderboards showing the most-remixed clips and the most-used cameos, a move clearly aimed at boosting community engagement inside the app.

The new Sora update is rolling out in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Korea, where users can now sign up for the app without an invitation, for a limited time.

In October, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hosted a livestream discussing the company’s progress toward building an intern-level research assistant by September 2026 and a fully automated “legitimate AI researcher” by 2028.