OpenAI’s Sora 2 takes AI-generated video to new heights, enabling you to craft hyper-realistic videos with ease. While the technology is impressive, it raises significant ethical and societal concerns. Here’s what you need to know.
Google Gemini’s Veo 3 is no longer the only mainstream AI video model with audio generation, thanks to OpenAI’s launch of Sora 2. This new version of Sora can create everything from deepfakes of you and your friends to meme videos, and it comes along with a social platform that I can best describe as an AI version of TikTok. Read further to find out how to start using Sora 2, what it’s capable of, and whether it’s actually worth trying.What Is Sora?
Sora is ChatGPT’s AI video generation model, but it’s also accessible as a dedicated app separate from ChatGPT. It’s been around for a while, but it couldn’t generate audio or match the quality of Gemini’s Veo 3 model until the recent Sora 2 update.
OpenAI didn’t just update Sora, though; it also updated the Sora app for iOS to turn it into a TikTok workalike for AI-generated videos: You can scroll through an infinite selection of short videos that others have made with Sora, commenting and liking posts as you go.Where Is Sora Available, and How Do You Access It?
Sora is currently available on iOS and the web, though you can preregister for Sora on Android. However, it’s invite-only at the time of writing. If you have an invite, you can use it on both platforms. According to OpenAI, Sora 2 is initially available for free with generous limits, but I suspect you will eventually have to pay for a premium plan to use it regularly.
If you pay for ChatGPT’s $200-per-month Pro plan, you get access to Sora 2 Pro, which is an experimental, higher-quality version of Sora 2. Sora 2 Pro is currently accessible only on the web, but OpenAI plans to bring it to the iOS app soon.
If you enjoyed using the original Sora, Sora 1 Turbo is still available, along with all the content you generated with it. However, it’s unclear how long this will be the case. Considering the backlash OpenAI experienced after removing legacy models with the release of GPT-5, however, I expect Sora 1 Turbo access to stick around for a while.What Can (and Can’t) You Do With Sora?
First and foremost, Sora generates AI videos. These can be pretty much anything, such as an anime scene you dream up or a fictional clip of a content creator playing Minecraft. Simply write a prompt, and Sora creates a video in about a minute or two. Once you generate a video, it exists as a draft that you can then publish, making it accessible in Sora’s TikTok-style feed. Creating the perfect AI video can be tough, but we have some advice to help you get started.
Sora has a couple of other interesting features. For one, you can generate videos based on images you upload. You currently can’t create videos based on images with real people, but OpenAI’s documentation strongly implies that capability is coming eventually. Bill Peebles, the head of Sora, also recently announced that more functionality is coming soon to Sora, including the ability to generate videos based on characters.
