As a purely creative instrument, Sora, the new AI video app from OpenAI, is a game changer. Dream up any scenario and it appears in an instant. Freddy Krueger as a contestant on Dancing With the Stars. Mr. Rogers teaching Tupac Shakur the lyrics to the legendary rap diss โHit Em Up.โ
But just as its innovations are remarkable, so is Soraโs potential for genuine harm.
Thatโs been true of generative AI for as long as the tech has existed. The capacity for abuse is inseparable from the miracle of what genAI can create. Sora simply extends the visual mediumโs long history of โelaborate deceptionsโ into something stranger, more alive, and untrustworthy. (This angle has been the focus of almost every story written about the app so far, and for good reason.)
โSkepticism needs to be a disposition that serves as the default for many of us as we navigate these times,โ says Marlon Twyman, a quantitative social scientist at USC Annenberg who specializes in social network analysis.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman understands the risk. He has suggested that Sora could usher in a โCambrian explosionโ of creativity for art and entertainment, but that it may also contribute to โus all being sucked into a [reinforcement-learning-optimized] slop feed.โ
More remarkable, though, are the questions Sora poses for the future of social media and what we ask of it.
Like Vine and TikTok before it, Sora is built to be addictive. Ten-second-long videos. Infinite scroll. Users can create a digital likeness of themselves and post content (called a โcameoโ) by entering prompts; you are not allowed to upload photos or videos from your camera roll. The appโs popularityโit surpassed 1 million downloads in its first weekโis ripe for this moment of decaying truths, where fact and reason have an increasingly diminished value. Unlike Vine and TikTok, however, Sora โfeels like a clear artifact of the current stage of social media,โ Twyman says. โItโs not about people anymore.โ
That is a growing concern among developers who say there are now too many social networking apps that have a flawed understanding of social dynamics. Like Sora, they are โinherently antisocial and nihilistic,โ says Rudy Fraser, the creator of Blacksky, the custom feed and moderation service for Black users on Bluesky. โTheyโve given up on fostering real human connection and are looking to profit on supplying people with artificial connection and manufactured dopamine.โ
Many will assume that Sora represents a new era of social media, but thatโs wrong. All it does is reanimate our current one. Itโs trying to hold on to something people have a diminishing use for. โWeโre certainly beyond the hashtag, clout-chasing, and desire-for-virality era of social media,โ Fraser says.
