Sora 2 strengthens the new narrative: AI devours apps, Meta responds with a drop
Goldman Sachs believes that the successful launch of Sora 2 is a strong confirmation of the narrative that "AI/large language models (LLM) are consuming software/applications," which could pose a disruptive threat to existing social media platforms. This concern in the market has led to a decline in Meta's stock price
OpenAI's latest video generation model Sora 2 and its booming applications are giving rise to a powerful new narrative in the market, namely that AI is poised to devour and reshape the existing software application ecosystem.
On Tuesday, OpenAI officially released its most advanced video generation model to date, Sora 2.0, along with an iPhone application called "Sora by OpenAI," aimed at bringing AI video creation to the masses, allowing users to create and share AI-generated videos with friends.
Although the application is currently invite-only, it has quickly topped the Apple App Store charts. After the release of Sora 2, Meta's stock price fell by 2.3% in after-hours trading. Goldman Sachs' market department commented that this is mainly due to market concerns that Sora 2's powerful audio and video generation capabilities could give rise to a new social media ecosystem.
From an investor's perspective, the emergence of Sora 2 is seen as a strong confirmation of the narrative that "AI/large language models (LLM) are devouring software/applications."
A New Round of AI Video Wars Begins
The launch of Sora 2 marks the beginning of a new arms race among tech giants in the AI-driven short video social space.
In fact, before OpenAI made headlines with Sora, the flames of competition in AI video applications had already been ignited. Participants in the AI field have been laying out plans to seize this new track known as "AI-native social information flow."
In August last year, Character.AI launched a feature called "Feed," claiming it to be "the world's first AI-native social information flow." Following closely, Meta launched a feature called "Vibes" in its AI application in September.
Similar to Sora, these platforms focus on an infinite scrolling information flow of short videos generated by creator communities, each lasting under 10 seconds, and encourage users to remix the content. Additionally, Midjourney has also launched a similar AI video web information flow.
Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand referred to Feed as "the world's first AI-native social stream" at its launch, declaring that "the era of scrolling is dead, and we are ushering in the future of AI-driven entertainment."
Why Did Sora Stand Out?
Despite entering the market slightly later, the Sora application quickly surpassed its competitors due to its outstanding productization capabilities and viral spread.
Firstly, the success of Sora 2 lies in its minimalist user experience design. Compared to Meta's hastily launched Vibes, OpenAI has once again demonstrated its advantages in productization. This application allows users to easily create short videos under 10 seconds and insert their own or their friends' images into them This highly personalized and social design is considered a smarter strategy than a simple social tab page and is one of the reasons for its rapid explosion on social networks.
In contrast, Meta's Vibes, launched a few days earlier, has been described as a "work in progress," with user feedback indicating that the experience is "obscure and difficult to understand."
"Explore, play, and share your imagination in a community built for experimentation," the App Store description of the Sora app shows. Some analysts point out that OpenAI is entering the social media business with a strategy similar to Facebook's early days, using an invitation-only access threshold and cutting-edge content flow.
"Infinite Waste" and Echoes of History
The explosive growth of AI video content has also raised new concerns. One critical voice refers to such services as "infinite waste machines," arguing that after the questionable quality of AI-generated art, the internet will soon be inundated with massive amounts of AI video "waste."
Deeper concerns point to environmental costs, as these services rely on a large amount of data center computing power, which means significant energy consumption and carbon emissions.
However, from the perspective of technological industry development, the current chaos may just be a necessary stage, akin to the "Cambrian Explosion" in the history of biological evolution. During that period, life forms increased dramatically, but many disappeared in subsequent mass extinctions.
Historical experience shows that this kind of technological diffusion often leads to market concentration. The explosion of personal computer operating systems in the 1980s ultimately gave way to Microsoft Windows, and the boom of search engines in the 1990s was eventually dominated by Google.
This means that in a given track, ultimately only one product can "suck all the oxygen out of the room," because it has the best core technology or has gained the broadest user acceptance. This may suggest that after the current AI video application battle, there will also be a final winner
