Sora

It seems like this newsletter could quickly become a “here’s the latest AI thing you need to know about for your brand” given how much news keeps rolling out of OpenAI.

And while I don’t want that to happen, I do want to spend a minute on Sora, the new app that’s growing faster than ChatGPT even did. But it’s probably not for the reason you think.

Sora, if you’re not familiar, is an AI video generation app that’s got social network components to it. It’s like TikTok + Vine + ChatGPT rolled into one. And it hit 1M app downloads in less than five days while being gated by an invite flow that required prospective users to get a code from a friend.

The content that’s coming out of Sora, though, is something brands need to be paying attention to.

For years, brands have moderated user-generated content, showing only the best reviews onsite, using only the best photos from customers in their ads and instagram feeds, and replying to negative reviews in public places with “let’s make it right” type messaging. Many of us in the commerce space have talked about how consumers have more power than ever, but, when it comes to using their voice, they still play by the brands’ rules. UGC, for all its authenticity, ends up being a manicured look.

Sora content, which is quickly becoming popular content in more traditional channels like Twitter, Instagram, etc, is unhinged by comparison. There’s a video of Mr. Rogers arm-wrestling Bob Ross. And a video of a Michelob Ultra can getting arrested for public indecency. And another of people making their friends cause a scene in a KFC.

I can’t imagine PBS, AB InBev or YUM! Brands are thrilled about this content. And that’s exactly the point.

If “AI slop” becomes a popular form of communication (and why wouldn’t it? Memes are already the language of the internet), then it’s pretty clear from the earliest creative outputs of Sora that consumers now get to talk about brands in the way they want to, wherever they want to.

I don’t think there’s a way to have a full appreciation for what this means, except to say that this will be the biggest shift in user-generated content we’ve ever seen. Consumers aren’t creating content for your products anymore; your products are now for their content.

You can bet it will be messy and weird as we figure it out, but you can also bet that it’s going to happen. The best you can do right now is understand what your customer thinks of your brand and your products.