(Credit: OpenAI)
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Imagination engine or a can of worms? OpenAI is taking on TikTok by releasing a rival video-sharing app that focuses entirely on helping people create AI-generated videos.
On Tuesday, the company introduced Sora 2, the next-generation version of its text-to-video generator, available first on iOS. The results, which take about two minutes to generate, are impressive, as demonstrated in this clip featuring OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Research Scientist Gabriel Petersson.
The app functions like TikTok, offering users a scrolling feed of short-form videos. However, in addition to text-to-video generation, Sora 2 also supports a feature called Cameo, which allows users to upload their face and voice to the app and create AI-generated videos of themselves.
In other words, you can “deepfake” yourself or others into whatever situation you imagine, with permission. Sora 2 can also pair high-quality audio, including dialogue, sound effects, and music, with each clip. Compared with Sora 1, the new version can generate longer videos using multiple shots, too.
The result is a Hollywood-esque high-budget video production. In a demo reel, OpenAI showed Altman, along with research scientist Bill Peebles, on the Moon, riding a jetski in the Arctic, and atop a dragon — all of it entirely AI-generated. “Sora 2 is also state of the art for motion, physics IQ, and body mechanics, marking a giant leap forward in realism,” Peebles says in the clip.
Altman describes Sora 2 as “the most powerful imagination engine ever built.” The goal is for users to create entertaining clips featuring their friends, family, and even pets, which can be shared on the app. But it’s also clear that the same technology could be used in malicious ways, such as spreading misinformation (not to mention copyright concerns).
In response, OpenAI says it’s taking a “conservative” approach with its content moderation and the kind of videos users can create. If you download a video from Sora, OpenAI will also clearly watermark it as AI-generated.
Sora 2 can also render audio in different languages. Still, OpenAI warns that the technology can hallucinate and introduce errors into the video, like giving a person the wrong accent.
For now, the Sora iOS app is rolling out access via an invite system. An Android app is coming.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.