The history of OpenAI is basically a loop of announcing “we’ve changed the world,” then immediately apologizing for doing so while feeding rhesus monkeys into a power generator. Every time the company rolls out a new product, it’s followed by a wave of bad press — either about how the technology actually sucks, how it was built using stolen content, or, more often than not, both.

Typically, the response from the company is “We’re working on it,” followed by the ceremonial burning of several billion dollars. However, sometimes, even *they* acknowledge that they’ve taken things too far.

In a post on X, OpenAI officially apologized for its video generation app Sora —  specifically for allowing users to create videos of Martin Luther King Jr. The issue? People were using the app to make him say some pretty insensitive things.

Statement from OpenAI and King Estate, Inc.

The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. (King, Inc.) and OpenAI have worked together to address how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s likeness is represented in Sora generations. Some users generated disrespectful depictions of Dr.…

— OpenAI Newsroom (@OpenAINewsroom) October 17, 2025

Of course, some of these edits were (relatively) innocent. However, after Zelda Williams begged people to stop sending her AI videos of her father, MLK Jr.’s daughter Bernice put out a similar call on X. From there, the Martin Luther King, Jr. estate put out an official call to knock it off, prompting OpenAI to release a statement announcing that they had “paused generations depicting Dr. King as it strengthens guardrails for historical figures.”

Great, now do that for everything!