OpenAI Halts Creation of MLK Deepfakes After Backlash Over "Disrespectful" AI Videos

OpenAI has temporarily stopped users from generating videos of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on its AI video tool, Sora, after a wave of disturbing and offensive content triggered outrage from his family and the public.
The move came after King’s estate requested that the company take action, following videos created through Sora that edited the civil rights leader's iconic “I Have a Dream” speech with racist noises and profanities. One clip even showed a likeness of King wrestling with Malcolm X — scenes widely criticized as offensive and disrespectful.
OpenAI acknowledged that users had created "disrespectful depictions" of Dr. King and announced it would pause such videos “as it strengthens guardrails for historical figures.”
While OpenAI didn’t say if the block on MLK videos will be permanent, the company said it’s working directly with the King estate and stressed that "public figures and their families should ultimately have control over how their likeness is used." It also said estate representatives of other historical figures can similarly request that their likeness not be used in Sora-generated content.
The backlash follows similar concerns raised by Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, who has repeatedly asked fans to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her father. “To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that's enough’, just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering them is maddening,” she wrote on Instagram.
Bernice A. King, daughter of Dr. King, echoed that sentiment. “I concur concerning my father. Please stop,” she wrote on Threads, asking people to stop circulating AI content using her father's image.
The controversial videos, many of which have gone viral on social media, have sparked a wider conversation about the ethical use of AI, especially in recreating the likenesses of public figures — living or dead. Civil rights advocate Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, questioned the morality of AI developers, asking why they don’t act “with the same morality, conscience, and care... that they'd want for their own families.”
Olivia Gambelin, an AI ethicist, said OpenAI’s decision to pull the MLK videos was "a good step forward" but criticized the company for launching such a powerful tool without tighter restrictions. “It plays too closely with trying to rewrite aspects of history,” she said, warning of the growing danger deepfakes pose to public understanding.
Sora, which creates realistic-looking video clips based on text prompts, has exploded in popularity for its ability to generate lifelike scenes. But the freedom it gives users to create videos of famous or deceased people has raised serious ethical and legal concerns. Last year, OpenAI also faced criticism after it released an AI voice that sounded “eerily similar” to Scarlett Johansson, who had declined to lend her voice to the project.
While OpenAI says it supports free speech and creative use of historical figures, it now seems to be acknowledging the fine line between creativity and disrespect — and is facing increasing pressure to draw that line more clearly.