Remember when "fake" on the internet meant a badly Photoshopped picture? Ah, simpler times. Now, we're all swimming in a sea of AI-generated videos and deepfakes, from bogus celebrity videos to false disaster broadcasts, and it's getting almost impossible to know what's real.
And it's about to get worse. Sora, the AI video tool from OpenAI, is already muddying the waters. But now its new, viral "social media app," Sora 2, is the hottest ticket on the internet. Here's the kicker: it's an invite-only, TikTok-style feed where everything is 100% fake.
The author already called it a "deepfake fever dream," and that's exactly what it is. It's a platform that's getting better by the day at making fiction look like fact, and the risks are huge. If you're struggling to separate the real from the AI, you're not alone.
Here are some helpful tips that should aid you in cutting through the noise to get to the truth of each AI-inspired situation.
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From a technical standpoint, Sora videos are impressive compared to competitors such as Midjourney's V1 and Google's Veo 3. They have high resolution, synchronized audio and surprising creativity. Sora's most popular feature, dubbed "cameo," lets you use other people's likenesses and insert them into nearly any AI-generated scene. It's an impressive tool, resulting in scarily realistic videos.
That's why so many experts are concerned about Sora. The app makes it easier for anyone to create dangerous deepfakes, spread misinformation and blur the line between what's real and what's not. Public figures and celebrities are especially vulnerable to these deepfakes, and unions like SAG-AFTRA have pushed OpenAI to strengthen its guardrails.
Identifying AI content is an ongoing challenge for tech companies, social media platforms and everyone else. But it's not totally hopeless. Here are some things to look out for to determine whether a video was made using Sora.
Look for the Sora watermark
Every video made on the Sora iOS app includes a watermark when you download it. It's the white Sora logo -- a cloud icon -- that bounces around the edges of the video. It's similar to the way TikTok videos are watermarked.
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