Could OpenAI's Sora be a big deal for elementary school kids?

Despite all the challenges it comes with, AI-generated video could unleash the creativity of young children and provide insights into their inner worlds – if it's developed and used responsibly

Image: OpenAI and Sora

Like many others, I’m concerned about the challenges that come with hyper-realistic AI-generated video. From deep fakes and disinformation to blurring the lines between fact and fiction, generative AI video is calling into question what we can trust, and what we cannot.

And yet despite all the issues the technology is raising, it also holds quite incredible potential, including as a learning and development tool — as long as we develop and use it responsibly.

I was reminded of this a few days back while watching the latest videos from OpenAI created by their AI video engine Sora — including the one below generated from the prompt “an elephant made of leaves running in the jungle”:

Source: OpenAI and Sora. Prompt: “an elephant made of leaves running in the jungle”

What struck me while watching this — perhaps more than any of the other videos OpenAI has been posting on its TikTok channel — is the potential Sora has for translating the incredibly creative but often hard to articulate ideas someone may have in their head, into something others can experience.

And when you extend this possibility to young kids, things get very interesting indeed.

At this point Sora isn’t available for general use. OpenAI is very sensibly being diligent in stress-testing the platform for possible ways it might cause harm before they make it more widely available.

Given the capabilities of the system to generate incredibly lifelike video, this is a much-needed move, and one that will hopefully lead to guardrails that prevent users and others being harmed — intentionally or inadvertently. But if appropriate guardrails and restrictions can be put in place, I’m fascinated by how Sora (and other generative AI video platforms) might be used in learning environments — and especially with elementary kids.

This is the point where my wife, who is an elementary school teacher, reminds me that I am not an elementary school teacher, and quite possibly don’t know what I’m talking about!¹ This may be true, but hear me out:

Young children have rich and vivid imaginations, as most parents learn pretty fast. As their developing minds make sense of the world they’re growing into, they have a capacity to explore ideas and play with possibilities that are gloriously unconstrained by what adults would consider to be possible or not. And in many cases, their ability to internally explore this evolving “playground of the mind” exceeds their ability to articulate it to others.

Source: OpenAI and Sora. Prompt: “Cinematic trailer for a group of adventurous puppies exploring ruins in the sky”

This disconnect is part of what drives students to master skills such as language, writing, art, storytelling, and other forms of expression. I also suspect that it leads to frustration where innate or learned skills are simply not up to the task of conveying to others the internal world you’re experiencing as a child.

If this is the case, could natural language AI video generation platforms like Sora act as a powerful way for young children to both convey to others what’s inside their heads, and to iteratively develop their creative and cognitive skills?

Source: OpenAI and Sora. Prompt: “niagara falls with colorful paint instead of water”

There is, of course, precedent here. Paper and pencils (and their many equivalents) are a powerful and time-tested medium for young children to explore and express their creativity, and to connect others with what they’re thinking and experiencing.

Likewise, computers have provided kids with the digital equivalent of paper and pencils — and more besides — for decades now. I still have fond memories of our children playing with KidPix when they were younger (although looking back I’m not sure who enjoyed the app more — me of them!). And Minecraft continues to provide an incredibly versatile environment for children to experiment and build in.

These and many other examples of creative tools, toys, and environments, have one thing in common — they provide playgrounds for the imagination where young children can explore, experiment, and express themselves, while engaging in a learning feedback loop that allows them to develop in ways that are unique to them.

And this brings me back to Sora. Could this platform become part of a new generation of tools that extend this “playground of the mind” for young kids, and that allow them to explore their ideas and connect them with others in new ways?

I suspect that it could. We’re on the cusp of technologies that are able to infer what is in our minds and imaginations, and make it real in ways that resonate deeply with others — all through the use of written or spoken language.

This may not be so important for people who already have the skills and abilities to effectively convey what’s in their mind to others. But how many of us have these skills at a level that truly meets our needs and desires?

Source: OpenAI and Sora. Prompt: “A litter of golden retriever puppies playing in the snow. Their heads pop out of the snow, covered in.”

I suspect that many of us are frustrated artists, or video makers, or storytellers — simply because our technical skills fall far short of our imaginations. And with young kids, my suspicions are that the disconnect is far, far greater.

Sora offers a tantalizing opportunity to close this gap. From what we’ve seen so far from OpenAI, it’s possible to imagine children as young as three or four years old interacting with the platform (either through speaking or typing) and co-creating content that reflects what’s in their minds more closely than any technology we’ve had to date.

This could be a game-changer for young children as they’re able to experience and respond to — and learn from — tangible representations of what they can imagine. But it also hold the promise of providing those around them with unique insights into what’s going on in their heads.

One possible outcome of this the ability for young children to collectively share and build on their imaginations in new ways. But it also opens up the possibility of parents and teachers gaining unique insights into what a child is thinking about or experiencing.

This taps into a long history of using visual media such as drawing or painting to infer and better-understand what a child is experiencing. These are powerful techniques for connecting with kids who struggle to express themselves to others verbally. Yet they are limited by the nature of media and its interpretation.

What if videos generated by AI through language — even limited language — could be used as a translator of what’s going on inside a child’s head in ways that far exceed what is possible with other visual media?

Such a possibility is, of course, not without its risks. But what we’re seeing from OpenAI and Sora makes it something that I would think is worth pursuing.

All of this is highly speculative at this point — Sora isn’t generally available, and even when it is released, there’s a substantial leap from a generative AI platform intended for use by responsible adults, and something that’s used with elementary school kids.

Yet the potential is such there that I would be fascinated to see what could be achieved — if we can agree on the right approach to safety, learning, and opening up creative possibilities.

Plus, I suspect that the world of Sora is perfect for the types of wild prompts that will seem quite normal to kids!

Source: OpenAI and Sora. Prompt: “a dragon made of bubbles, perfectly rendered 8k”

1. I checked with her — thankfully I got the green light for this piece!