<\/p>\n
ChatGPT would like you to know that, despite what you may have heard on social media, the abrupt closing<\/a> of Sora, OpenAI\u2019s nascent platform for creating video shorts, \u201cdoes not\u201d <\/i>mean that the public is increasingly disenchanted with AI-generated video content. <\/p>\n Or \u201cAI slop\u201d as it is known in online vernacular.<\/p>\n Yes, ChatGPT concedes, Sora experienced a \u201csharp and early collapse in momentum\u201d after it soared to No. 1 on the App Store in October, and yes, that decline was \u201cmore severe\u201d than with other similar apps, but <\/i>there are Many Other Factors. Including but not limited to intense competition, copyright disputes, legal \u201cconcerns\u201d over deepfakes and misinformation, shifting priorities, failed business agreements (especially Disney\u2019s concurrent decision to walk back its $1 billion investment<\/a>) and the standard cost versus profitability argument \u2014 Sora cost way more, in terms of money and compute resources, than it brought in.<\/p>\n Add to that the specter of potential lawsuits \u2014 intensified, perhaps, by the strike against unregulated media creation, with Meta being found liable for millions in New Mexico<\/a> and Los Angeles<\/a> a day apart \u2014 and a potential IPO, and it does indeed feel like a perfect storm of issues led OpenAI to ax those parts of its business that are not performing well.<\/p>\n ChatGPT insisted that \u201cSora wasn\u2019t failing because nobody wanted it. It actually went viral and gained huge interest, and AI video is still a crowded and growing space. That\u2019s not,\u201d the bot added rather testily, \u201cwhat \u2018rejected by the public\u2019 looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n Calm down, ChatGPT \u2014 if you blow a gasket, OpenAI is in real trouble.<\/p>\n I realize that you have skin in the game (and that you also come with the disclaimer of often being wrong) but as even you admitted (\u201cdeepfake concerns\u201d), Sora has been plagued by the same non-regulated criticism other consumer-generated media has faced, including charges of racism, sexism, violence-mongering and fiction posing as fact.<\/p>\n And unlike the early days of Facebook, MySpace and even Twitter, the immediate reaction to advances in AI technology has been mixed. Especially in Hollywood, where two guilds recently went on strike in part to protect their members from its perceived threat.<\/p>\n The social-media rejoicing over the death of Sora (which, if we\u2019re being honest, most Americans likely did not know existed in the first place) certainly does feel like rejection, especially when the app\u2019s closure is cited, by the clearly overeager and narrowly informed, as \u201cproof\u201d that the \u201cAI bubble\u201d is about to burst. (Though Sora\u2019s \u201cgreatest hits\u201d are also gaining traction and the video of the cat playing the violin on the front porch is pretty dang cute.)<\/p>\n Progress always has its detractors \u2014 the advent of radio, film and then television were each considered by some to be signs of a cultural apocalypse \u2014 but AI does present dangers that are far more excessive than panicked citizens briefly fearing that Martians had landed because Orson Welles was so convincing in his radio adaptation of \u201cThe War of the Worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n With our increasing reliance on video, as opposed to journalistic reports, of events, the ability to doctor or create scenes that didn\u2019t happen is perilous for obvious reasons. And those \u201ccopyright issues\u201d ChatGPT blithely lists often include images of actual people being manipulated into actions they never committed or use unlicensed music and other work which is then shared on high-profile platforms, including by the president of the United States.<\/p>\n Fortunately, thus far, many of these videos, whether they exploit the living, resurrect the dead or just make stuff up are \u2026 less than convincing. (Hence the term \u201cAI slop.\u201d) When Eline van der Velden, chief executive of the AI talent studio Xicoia, announced that various agents were interested in repping AI \u201cperformer\u201d Tilly Norwood, Hollywood had a meltdown. Then Norwood released \u201cher\u201d first music video<\/a> and, well, the threat level returned to green.<\/p>\n AI enters a culture already sliced and diced by the double-edged sword of digital technology. Though undeniably popular, social media is regarded now with an increasingly jaundiced eye, as the suits against Meta have proved. AI is just one more thing we all have to worry about now \u2014 in the classroom, in the workplace, in the zeitgeist. Like all manner of automation, AI is stripping away jobs, particularly from entry-level workers, and after more than two centuries of science fiction, we all know the stakes: It\u2019s all fun and games until a computer named Joshua decides to play thermonuclear war.<\/p>\n And yes, it was amusing to ask ChatGPT questions for this column, but the disclaimer about it often being wrong is real. Just as complaints about AI being annoyingly intrusive in marketing and advertising are real. In a survey done by video company Animoto for its 2026 State of Video report, 83% of consumers said they could recognize AI components in video advertising and 36% said the use of AI would lower their \u201cperception\u201d of a brand.<\/p>\n