OpenAI’s follow-up to its video generator doesn’t feel like a mere “version upgrade.” After several days of hands-on tinkering, creators are discovering that Sora 2 is engineered for TikTok-style, swipeable moments. The tool packages slick audio, crisp visuals and dead-simple in-app editing into a single workflow, then funnels finished clips straight into a brand-new social feed. That tight loop between creation and distribution is what shocks longtime users: it transforms Sora from a novelty into a potential attention magnet—and, by extension, a revenue machine.
Alongside Sora 2, OpenAI quietly unveiled Pulse—a personalised, algorithmic news stream that free ChatGPT users can train with simple “show me more / less” nudges. It looks innocent enough, but the strategy is unmistakable. Free users cost money; an endlessly scrolling feed, peppered with sponsored items, can finally pay the bills. If Pulse takes off, ChatGPT becomes not just a place to ask questions but a daily homepage. That means the company will own both the query and the context in which ads appear, squeezing Google’s core advantage from two angles at once.
The other pillar of the plan is commerce. Checkout already pulls live inventory from Etsy, and Shopify integration is in testing. For the millions of merchants who rely on Shopify, that partnership could redirect purchase intent away from search engines and into conversational flows. Optimising for “ChatGPT SEO” may soon matter as much as ranking on Google. If it works, OpenAI will sit at the top of a retail funnel that spans discovery, comparison and one-click purchase—every step ripe for sponsored placement.
Legions of marketers are licking their lips. Sora 2 makes it trivial to render a photogenic model gushing over a product that never touched a human hand. Insert those 3-second hooks between user stories, log the engagement data, and iterate in silico until the conversion curve spikes. Yet the same system can target insecurities with surgical precision. An ad engine that knows your weaknesses because it literally wrote your diary entries feels less like “relevance” and more like manipulation. The open question is how aggressively OpenAI will wall off core research queries from commercial influence—or whether the temptation proves too sweet.
Sora’s cameo feature lets anyone record a short reference clip and license their likeness. Overnight, feeds filled with AI-generated skits starring rock legends, YouTubers and even corporate CEOs. The legal cracks are obvious: most of those faces belong to rights holders who never signed off. OpenAI appears to be betting on the YouTube playbook—let the mash-ups fly, then retrofit revenue-sharing once the lawsuits land. Some predict that Hollywood will eventually embed “custom instructions” that govern how a character may behave—Picard can give a motivational speech, but he can’t sell crypto. If that framework sticks, a whole marketplace of rentable identities could emerge.
Early adopters report that a 20-minute Sora scroll leaves them oddly tired. It isn’t just dopamine overload; it’s cognitive whiplash. A Bob Ross face-paint tutorial dissolves into a Counter-Strike travel vlog, then pivots to South Park debating lead paint—all algorithmically stitched and relentlessly personalised. The brain strains to reconcile so many overlapping micro-fictions, a phenomenon that mirrors the “in-between reality” VR researchers warn about. Whether audiences embrace that whirlwind or retreat to slower mediums like podcasts and long-form blogs will shape the cultural fallout of AI video.
The novelty of Sora 2 masks a deeper shift: generative models are inching from tools to autonomous agents. If Pulse curates what you read, if Checkout suggests what you buy, and if your favourite avatar can appear, speak and transact on your behalf, the boundary between helper and manipulator blurs. Designers insist that strong guardrails—explicit ethics layers, transparent sponsorship tags, user-controlled cameo permissions—will keep the system aligned. History says incentives usually win. For creators, marketers and viewers alike, the imperative is clear: understand the mechanics now, while they’re still legible, because the next leap may arrive before we’ve caught our breath.