Washed Out - The Hardest Part

What this video is

Released May 2, 2024, as the lead single from Washed Out's fifth album 'Notes from a Quiet Life' (Sub Pop, June 28, 2024), 'The Hardest Part' arrived at a flashpoint in the cultural debate over AI's role in creative industries. As the first major music video produced entirely with OpenAI's Sora, it sparked immediate and polarized public discourse — drawing accusations of plagiarism (given Sora's opaque training…

Why it matters

Represents a definitive genre milestone: the convergence of chillwave's introspective, nostalgia-drenched sonic identity with the emergent medium of AI-generative cinema. As the longest Sora-generated video at time of release and the first artist-filmmaker Sora collaboration, it permanently marks…

The director

Los Angeles-based director, writer, and multi-media artist with a background in experimental film from California College of The Arts. Known for technically innovative work spanning practical effects, mobile bullet-time rigs, drone choreography, and AI…