Overview

• OpenAI’s second-generation Sora, released September 30, produces markedly more realistic 10‑second clips with improved physics and native audio.
• The invite-only iOS app functions like a short‑form video feed and lets people generate clips from text prompts or uploaded photos and then download and repost them widely.
• Journalists and users demonstrated harmful uses including fabricated dashcam crashes with editable plates, bogus health claims, staged TV news segments, and defamation, alongside playful celebrity and cartoon scenarios.
• OpenAI says it is gathering feedback, plans to give rights holders control and potential monetization pathways, and has added visible watermarks and embedded signatures, yet the watermark can be cropped out.
• Experts caution that short, highly polished clips on TikTok, Reels, Shorts and similar feeds may be synthetic, urging greater skepticism as copycat tools emerge and provenance cues become less reliable.