Is Sora the beginning of the end for OpenAI?

AGI Hype vs Sora’s Reality

• Several commenters argue the funding boom was sold on imminent AGI and massive white‑collar automation; Sora feels like a pivot to consumer entertainment instead of “world‑reconfiguring” tech.
• Others counter that near‑term value may simply be “more inference for office work,” not AGI, and Sora is just one of many experiments.
• Some see OpenAI’s current behavior (Sora, browser, apps, agents) as a pivot from “frontier model provider” to owning end users and distribution.

Porn, Erotica, and Tech Adoption

• Thread notes that AI porn and erotica existed long before Sora; Sora is just a more visible step.
• Debate over whether porn has historically driven tech (payments, broadband, formats) or if that’s mostly myth.
• Some see OpenAI’s talk of “erotica” and flood of NSFW/abuse content as evidence of enshittification and ethical carelessness.

Investment, Business Model, and Motives

• Skeptics describe OpenAI as a kind of pyramid: ever‑larger raises justified by bigger promises that may not materialize.
• Others say frontier models are individually profitable but not enough to fund the next generation, forcing more aggressive product plays.
• There’s concern that ad‑based monetization will degrade usefulness, as happened to search and social media.

Are LLMs the Wrong Path to AGI?

• A substantial subthread claims language tokens and embeddings are a fundamentally misguided proxy for thought; true cognition is “wordless” and action‑based.
• Others respond that while imperfect, embeddings are simply the best practical method found so far; alternative AGI lines are underfunded but not obviously superior.

Sora, Deepfakes, and the ‘Post‑Truth’ World

• Many worry video generation will further erode trust: fake clips for propaganda, blackmail, or political manipulation, and widespread dismissal of real footage as “AI.”
• Counterargument: humanity has always faced forged text, rumors, and staged media; we’ll adapt by weighting source/credibility more and treating video like any other untrusted claim.
• Disagreement over whether this adaptation will be fast and manageable or involve genocides, authoritarianism, or collapse of shared reality.

Impact on Social/Short‑Form Video

• Some predict Sora‑style content will flood TikTok/shorts, dulling surprise, undermining authenticity, and damaging those platforms’ value.
• Others think most users don’t care if content is staged or generated; short‑form is already saturated with low‑effort “AI slop.”

What Sora Signals About OpenAI’s Strategy

• One camp sees Sora as desperation and loss of research focus; another as a rational, marketing‑adjacent tech demo and data‑gathering tool.
• Broad agreement that the real existential issue for OpenAI is commoditization: if models become cheap and interchangeable, its moat must be more than “biggest model” or one flashy app.