Podcast Summary: Search Engine – "Cocomelon For Adults"

Host: PJ Vogt
Guest: Casey Newton
Date: October 10, 2025

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode explores the rapid evolution of AI-generated video apps, focusing on OpenAI’s new "Sora 2"—a tool and social feed for creating hyper-realistic, AI-generated videos starring your own face or public figures. The conversation digs into how and why Sora was built, its social and technological implications, OpenAI’s pivot toward addictive feed-based content, and the broader consequences for Internet culture, authenticity, and human relationships. The hosts also ask: are we just heading toward an Internet of "Cocomelon for adults"?

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Sora 2: What Is It and How Does It Work?

[05:16]–[10:20]

• "Sora2 is a text to video generator...you say, 'Hey, make a video of me doing my high school English homework using my face,' and then it does that." —Casey Newton [06:27]
• Users can generate short, realistic videos by typing prompts, often inserting themselves or friends.
• The app captures a few seconds of your face and voice, synthesizing an uncanny but increasingly realistic likeness.
• Sora’s UI closely copies TikTok: vertical, swipeable video feed, ability to like, comment, and crucially "remix" videos by entering new prompts.

2. Sora’s Viral Debut and Its Culture

[10:20]–[15:05]

• Launched via a low-key developer livestream and instantly overran social media.
• OpenAI employees and users (including CEO Sam Altman) made endless AI videos of public figures in absurd scenarios, e.g., Sam Altman stealing GPUs at Target or singing in musical theater.
• “Watching one of the most famous tech CEOs appear in realistic video after realistic video of himself in very fake situations… you watch the future become the present.” —PJ Vogt [15:05]
• Discussion about the unsettling power of realistic deepfakes (e.g., fake crimes), with safeguards for now, but proliferation by competitors looms.

3. The Road to Slop: From AI Research Lab to Time-Sink App

[16:10]–[24:45]

• Casey tracks the evolution: from DALL-E’s drawings (2022) ➡️ early, grotesque video (Will Smith eating spaghetti [19:17]) ➡️ to today's near-photorealistic, audio-synced video.
• Technical leaps are significant but increasingly incomprehensible—even to insiders:
  "No one who works there completely understands any of it... they talk about models like they're growing orchids.” —Casey Newton [22:48]
• Launching Sora as a “fun” public demo, but also a showcase for unchecked generative powers (copyrighted characters, real people, anything goes).

4. OpenAI’s Motives: “Cure Cancer” or monetize Junk Food?

[29:38]–[33:39]

• OpenAI’s public rationale: Demo the road to AGI and spread "joy, creativity and connection."
• Critics note the contradiction:
  "This is the 'we’re here to help humanity' company unveiling junk food, an AI slop social media feed that is glugging unseemly amounts of electricity.” —PJ Vogt [29:23]
• Sam Altman himself admits they need revenue—quickly—to fund the massive infrastructure for AI, even if it means feeding attention economies with new forms of time-wasting entertainment.

5. The Facebookification of OpenAI

[31:09]–[36:19]

• OpenAI, once a nonprofit research outfit, increasingly hires ex-Facebook/Meta staff and launches products deeply inspired by engagement-optimizing social feeds.
• New features (Pulse, commerce integrations) add push-style, addictive news and product feeds—in tension with OpenAI’s stated mission to “help you get stuff done, then put your phone down.”
• “One of the questions is… how much do you trust them? To be a little bit like Facebook versus in two years, ChatGPT is a super optimized product that gets you to stare at your phone...most of which leave you feeling worse off when you’re done, right?” —PJ Vogt [35:21]

6. The Arms Race and Endgame

[37:26]–[41:42]

• OpenAI and its rivals are in a “winner-takes-all (or most)” race for AI dominance—requiring oceans of money and electricity.
• “There is a belief that this is maybe a winner take all race… if that is the case, you want to be that company.” —Casey Newton [38:15]
• Sora's success is uncertain; the "cameos" feature (putting your friends or self into wild AI scenarios) may stick, but lasting social platforms are rare.
• OpenAI openly considers Sora as not just a TikTok clone, but possibly as a future, AI-powered replacement for platforms like X/Twitter.

7. AI Feeds, Authenticity, and AI ‘Slop’

[43:49]–[46:13]

• Widespread populist disdain for “AI slop”—endless, soulless, weird or junky video—contrasts with its popularity.
• “This is Cocomelon for adults. This is just raw visual stimulation designed to keep me hypnotically scrolling as long as I can.” —Casey Newton [45:10]
• Even among skeptics, the hypnotic allure is real, as social feeds become “colors and shapes” for adults.
• The hosts ponder whether any meaningful social connection can survive in feeds dominated by AI-generated content.

8. Hopes for Human Connection Amidst the Slop

[47:29]–[49:36]

• Despite the overwhelming tide of algorithmic content, people still crave genuine connections—through podcasts, newsletters, niche communities.
• “I just can’t imagine wanting to listen to an AI podcast...I think podcasts give us a connection to real people who we like thinking through difficult problems.” —Casey Newton [47:34]
• Authenticity and thoughtful sense-making remain valued, even as distraction and “slop” grow ever more powerful.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "The things we make are like our dreams—very interesting to us, very boring to everybody else." —PJ Vogt [05:32]
• "Making realistic videos of people committing crimes that they did not commit can lead to negative outcomes." —Casey Newton [13:08]
• “Why does this keep happening to us?” (Tech billionaires making themselves main characters of social apps) —Casey Newton [13:23]
• "There's a nightmare on Elm Street quality to it where... Sam Altman walks into every dream." —Casey Newton [14:58]
• "No one who works there completely understands any of it... they talk about models like they're growing orchids." —Casey Newton [22:48]
• "This is the ‘we’re here to help humanity' company unveiling junk food, an AI slop social media feed..." —PJ Vogt [29:23]
• "The platform is holding that relationship hostage so that the platform can have a relationship with you." —PJ Vogt [43:11]
• "This is Cocomelon for adults." —Casey Newton [45:10]
• "Are we just gonna end up looking at colors and shapes?" —PJ Vogt [46:03]
• "I do think... there are these avenues where you see people really hungry for a human connection. I think podcasts are a big part of that." —Casey Newton [47:34]
• "The solution to all of this is clearly podcasts." —PJ Vogt [49:36]

Useful Timestamps for Key Segments

• [06:27] What Sora 2 actually is—an AI text-to-video generator
• [09:01] The UI is a TikTok clone; remixing & engagement mechanics
• [12:50] The first viral Sora memes: Sam Altman deepfakes and reactions
• [16:10] The stepwise progress from AI images to AI video
• [19:12] The infamous Will Smith “eating spaghetti” video benchmark
• [22:48] Even the builders don’t fully understand what's under the hood
• [29:38] OpenAI’s pivot from “AGI for humanity” to “making junk food apps for funding”
• [31:31] The Facebookification—ex-Facebook execs, social feeds, and engagement loops
• [35:21] Is OpenAI really a "different" sort of company, or just Facebook 2.0?
• [38:15] The AI arms race logic explained
• [43:11] Social platforms as gatekeepers to human connection
• [45:10] “Cocomelon for adults” — AI slop, hypnotic scrolling
• [47:34] Hope: people still crave and seek authentic, human content

Conclusion

Sora 2 marks a striking shift from OpenAI’s high-minded AGI rhetoric to the reality of engagement-maximizing, AI-generated content feeds. The episode frames this as both a technological marvel and a source of existential anxiety for Internet culture and human connection: as the lines between “slop” and sense-making blur, the value of authentic, human-driven communities—like podcasts—becomes newly clear. Whether Sora becomes the next TikTok, a flash in the pan, or just another layer of distracting noise remains to be seen.

The solution, for now according to the hosts: More podcasts.

For more in-depth insights on technology, AI, and Internet culture, follow PJ Vogt’s Search Engine and Casey Newton’s Hard Fork and Platformer.