The fanfare for OpenAI’s new AI social media app continues this week: Sora is winning the popularity contest in Apple’s app store. As of Friday, Oct. 3, Sora outranks its sister app ChatGPT (No. 3) and Google Gemini (No. 2) on the chart of top free apps.
Sora is a brand new app named after OpenAI’s video generator. It has a similar setup to TikTok, with different feeds of looped videos on an endless stream. But Sora is different from any other social media platforms in one big way: Nothing on Sora is real. Every video is made using the company’s latest AI video model, Sora 2.
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The app is only available for US and Canadian iOS users, with Android users stuck using Sora through its website. But even if you can download the iOS app, you won’t be able to start scrolling unless you have an invite code. You’ll need to receive a code from a friend or get yourself on the waitlist.
OpenAI’s Sora is No. 1 on the Apple App Store top free apps as of Friday, Oct. 3.
The most popular feature on Sora is called cameo. When you sign up for an account, you record your face and voice so that Sora can take your likeness and place it into AI-generated scenes.
You can let other people use your Sora likeness to create AI videos — I was able to make an AI video of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman saying rival Gemini is better than ChatGPT, for example.
The easy-to-use AI tech has inflamed concerns that AI will make it easier for bad actors to make convincing deepfakes and make it harder for all of us to discern what’s real from what’s AI-generated.
Sora’s top ranking is another sign that generative media is a growing focus for tech companies and their users. Last month, Gemini clinched Apple’s top slot, in part due to its popular AI image generator known as “nano banana.”
OpenAI added image generation to ChatGPT earlier this year, sparking a trend of people making AI versions of themselves in the iconic (and copyrighted) style of Studio Ghibli. Meta signed a deal with AI creative firm Midjourney to bolster its future AI creative products. But not all creators are on board, with many voicing significant legal and ethical concerns.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
For more, check out what to know about AI video generators and how to use Gemini’s nano banana.
Watch this: Sam Altman’s Deepfake Claims Gemini Is Better Than ChatGPT
