OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defends the launch of AI video app Sora: ‘I get the vibe here, but…’

OpenAI recently launched a new social media app called Sora. It is a short-video platform that comes with the company’s latest video generation model – Sora 2. The app is said to be a direct rival of TikTok. Hours after the launch, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman can be seen defending the launch of Sora. An X (formerly Twitter) user shared an image of Sam Altman with the text: “I’m doing it because I love it”. The user captioned the post:“Sam Altman 2 weeks ago: “we need 7 trillion dollars and 10GW to cure cancer”“Sam Altman today: “We are launching AI slop videos marketed as personalized ads”Responding to the post, Altman acknowledged the public skepticism by comparing it to ChatGPT's debut, where similar doubts preceded widespread adoption, and stresses the nuanced balance between innovation, user engagement, and commercialization. He said:“i get the vibe here, but... we do mostly need the capital for build AI that can do science, and for sure we are focused on AGI with almost all of our research effort. it is also nice to show people cool new tech/products along the way, make them smile, and hopefully make some money given all that compute need. when we launched chatgpt there was a lot of "who needs this and where is AGI". reality is nuanced when it comes to optimal trajectories for a company.”Soon after the launch of Sora app, social media – specifically X, got flooded with AI-generated videos of Sam Altman. Reflecting on the unexpected surge of his AI-generated videos, Altman shared a post stating “not sure what to make of this”.“it is way less strange to watch a feed full of memes of yourself than i thought it would be. not sure what to make of this,” Altman wrote.