Washed Out’s new music video was created with OpenAI’s Sora tech

“The Hardest Part,” a new song from indie pop artist Washed Out, is all about love lost, among the most human of themes.

But ironically, to illustrate the tune’s sense of longing, the musician turned to something far less flesh-and-blood: artificial intelligence.

With Thursday’s release of “The Hardest Part,” Macon, Ga.-based Washed Out, whose real name is Ernest Greene, has the first collaboration between a major music artist and filmmaker on a music video using OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video technology, according to the singer-songwriter’s record label Sub Pop.

The roughly four-minute video, directed by Paul Trillo, speedily zooms the viewer through key elements of a couple’s life. The audience sees the characters — a red-haired woman and a dark-haired man — go from making out and smoking in a 1980s high school to getting married and having a child. “Don’t you cry, it’s all right now,” Greene croons. “The hardest part …