Sora Soars
It's been a long time since I've been this sucked into an app. Such was the situation I found myself in last night with OpenAI's new version of Sora. Once I got access, I found it nearly impossible to put it down. I just kept wanting to remix everything I scrolled past. Yes, it was incredibly dumb. Yet highly amusing! And technically, very interesting, albeit in mildly troubling ways. But everyone else will write about that aspect, and rightfully so. My angle here is simply that OpenAI remains so good at creating these types of viral products. Underlying tech aside, that team continues to seem to know how to productize better than anyone else in the space.
Case in point: Meta launched a similar foray just days before in the form of "Vibes". Now, did they rush it out the door to get ahead of this Sora 2 launch? Hard to say for sure, but it sure feels that way. The product, if you even want to call it that, is so half-baked and obtuse to use that it's more like an employment quiz. Can you figure out how to create a fun AI video in under 5 minutes? If so, you're hired. Your starting salary is one million dollars. Oh, you worked at OpenAI? Your starting salary is one hundred million dollars.
By contrast, the Sora app is so stupidly simple to use. Hence why I can't open it up without getting sucked in for at least a half and hour as I remix everything and anything that pops into my head. Is this useful to anyone? I mean, hopefully not. But maybe hearing JFK admit that his favorite movie is the Care Bears sparks joy in someone. I will settle for a chuckle.
Should we be allowed to make JFK utter such blasphemy? That's above my pay grade. OpenAI definitely has some IP guardrails in place here which I kept running into, but there are also clearly pretty easy ways to get around them. And should public figures be fair game in this game? The lawyers are going to have a field day in this brave new world.
Again, let's not get bogged down in that for now. OpenAI is just so good at making fun products out of this technology. From DALL-E to ChatGPT to this. To be fair, Google also seems to be having a bit of a moment thanks to 'Nano Banana' – the first time in a long while that they've smartly seemed to create a viral moment around their tech. And it's clearly driving downloads and usage of Gemini. But that was related to doing what OpenAI did with the 'Ghibli' moment, and leveraging their massive user base around the world. Anyway, good for them. This is not that.
This feels like the real dawn – after Meta's faux dawn – of AI video becoming something more than it has been to date. Yes, Runway and others have been operating in the space for a while – and I could see hints of this in the initial Sora launch last year – but this type of tool can go truly mainstream. Certainly it seems like everyone will try it, the question is if there is any staying power here? I've long been skeptical that there's much long term value to derive from such networks, but here I am, continuing to watch these and laugh and laugh and laugh.
And unlike just the random AI sloppy stuff, the real genius here is OpenAI making everyone sign up with their own likeness, so that you can inject an almost hauntingly realistic version of yourself into these videos. And then, of course, the ability for your friends – or anyone, if you choose – to insert you into their's. This is not a new idea, but it remains a very smart one. Smarter than a simple social tab.1
Like everyone else, my entire feed last night was videos of Sam Altman. It was both hilarious and creepy. But then it seemed to morph into Pikachu. And then Jesus. Sometimes two of them – or all three of them together! I'm not sure this is better than other AI slop, but it's decidedly more amusing. Again, at least for now.
At least until Hollywood wakes up to this. They will not be pleased. Even though there's certainly an argument to be made that this will help that industry in ways.
In many ways, I'm reminded of the early days of Vine here. You know, the short-form video social network that Twitter bought and ran into the ground before it could become what TikTok became? Yeah, that Vine. I happened to be an early investor in the service and as such, was one of the first users. I immediately saw the appeal of making video creation/editing on your phone as simple as tapping. There was potential to do for mobile video what Instagram did for mobile photos. But very quickly the user base of the network took over and pushed the service in ways that were far more interesting than I ever could have imagined.
These Vine stars were both hilarious and insanely creative. And with time, they morphed into YouTube stars and some of them into actual stars. There are already some elements of this that seem to be popping up just two days into this Sora app. Some people are really, really good at making AI videos.
I am not one of those people. At least not yet. But I'm having too much fun making my incredibly stupid videos to stop now.
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
1 Oh yes, and there's the whole TikTok vibe here of the actual app itself. That obviously helps grease the wheels here – especially with those wheels about to finally (maybe?) change ownership (on the cheap) and... we'll see! ↩