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Sora, Sora, Sora
00:19:55
Why Sora is all anyone can talk about, both the new social network and the new AI model. Satya Nadella is still Microsoft’s CEO but he’s taken some things off his plate. Oura gets colorful, and a hardware company that we’ve not spoken about in years is back, with AI onboard.
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Welcome to the Tech Brew Ride home for Wednesday, October 1st, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, why Sora is all anyone can talk about both the new social network and the new AI model Satya Nadella is still Microsoft's CEO, but he's taken some things off his plate. Aura gets colorful and a hardware company that we've not spoken about in years is back with AI on board. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Well, had I known they were going to just release it right away, I might not have told you about it yesterday. But yes, if you've been on social media at all, then you're probably aware that OpenAI has released an invitation only Sora app on iOS powered by Sora 2 to let people create and share AI generated videos of themselves and their friends. Quoting Axios, the Sora app on iOS requires an invitation. An Android version will follow eventually, OpenAI told Axios. The social app is powered by Sora 2, a new version of OpenAI's video model, which also launched Tuesday. Sora 2 adds support for synchronized audio and video, including dialog. OpenAI says Sora 2 is significantly better at simulating real world physics, among other improvements. The original Sora model from February 2024 was in many ways the GPT one moment for video, OpenAI said in a blog post. With Sora 2, we are jumping straight to what we think may be the GPT 3.5 Moment for Video. The Sora app creates shareable 10 second video clips based on prompts or photos, as long as the photos don't have people in them. Sora users can include themselves in the video using a cameo feature that requires people to follow a series of instructions to authenticate themselves, an approach designed to avoid impersonation. They can also choose to allow their likeness to be used by friends in their videos. When someone's own cameo is used, they are notified and have the ability to approve the usage or delete the video. Videos can be shared publicly or just with friends via a group message. Others can choose to remix creations by adding tweaks to the prompt or their own cameo to the video. OpenAI says it will prioritize access to those who were heavy users of the original Sora model and Pro subscribers, followed by plus and Team Plan users, and eventually all users, including including those using ChatGPT for free. Everyone who is invited to download the app will be given codes to give to friends between the lines. OpenAI gives people tight control over their own identity, but takes a hands off approach to copyright, leaving it to rights holders to ask for removal. It's similar to the approach OpenAI has taken with ChatGPT's image generation feature, which is capable of recreating a wide range of fictional universes such as Star wars or the Simpsons. OpenAI has also taken steps to ensure Sora's creations are labeled as AI created, including both digital content credentials and visible watermarking when videos are downloaded. The move reflects a broader push to make AI a more social experience. Meta last week announced Vibes, its own social app for sharing AI videos. Speaking to reporters ahead of the launch, the Sora team said the app is built to spark creativity over passive consumption, framing it as a tool for real world friends. End quote. Buried in there a bit is the further headline of the release of that new Sora 2 model, which OpenAI says has the ability to follow intricate instructions spanning multiple shots. Quoting the Verge on Monday, I watched OpenAI CEO Sam Altman drink from a gigantic mango flavored juice box and remark aloud about how the box was half his size. The catch? It wasn't really Altman. The juice box wasn't real, he wasn't really talking, and it was a deep fake generated by AI. The most concerning part? I couldn't tell whether or not it was real. OpenAI announced Sora 2, its new AI video and audio generation system, on Tuesday, and in a briefing with a reporter quarters on Monday, employees called it the potential ChatGPT moment for video generation. Just like ChatGPT, Sora 2 is being released as a way for consumers to play around with a new AI tool, one that includes a social media app with the ability to create realistic videos of real people saying real things. You could say it's essentially an app full of deep fakes on purpose. OpenAI believes Sora, which was first announced in February 2024 and released that December, has finally reached a point of relative reliability. Bill Peebles, OpenAI's head of Sora, compared the video generation system's earliest iteration to a slot machine where you would put a prompt in and kind of cross your fingers that what you got out bore any resemblance to what you asked for. The new model, he says, is way better in terms of being faithful to how users prompt it. During the briefing, the team behind Sora 2 said they had been working on it for at least 20 months. The biggest step change in the product is that it can now generate audio that's synchronized with video, not just background soundscapes and sound effects, but also dialogue that works for a range of languages in the release OpenAI said Sora 2 is moving us closer to useful world simulators. OpenAI employees told reporters the new system was much smarter at physics too. People said you can accurately do backflips on top of a paddleboard on a body of water and all of the fluid dynamics and buoyancy are accurately modeled. It's really a step function change in terms of the underlying physics intelligence that this model has. OpenAI employees told reporters during the Monday briefing that Sora has replaced TE messages, emojis and voice notes for them to become one of the top ways they communicate among themselves. In the briefing, they demoed fake ads, fake conversations between two people, fake news clips and more, all created with Sora 2 and consumed via scrolling through the social media app. Some of the clips were generated live as we watched, and they were terrifyingly realistic. No more six fingered hands that I could see. At least. Unless the video contained fantastical subject matter like the gigantic juice box example, the untrained eye may not be able to tell that these videos were AI generated. And if you could tell, it would likely be based simply on a feeling or a vibe of something. Feeling off the Sora app lets you choose who can create cameos with your likeness. Just yourself, people you approve, mutuals, or everyone. OpenAI employees said that users were co owners of these cameos and could revoke someone else's creation access or delete a video containing their AI generated likeness at any time. It's also possible to block someone on the app. Team members also said that users can see drafts of cameos that others are making of them before they're posted, and that in the future they may change settings so the person featured in a cameo has to approve it before it posts. But that's not the case yet. Like TikTok, the Sora app seems built to generate social media trends with the ability to remix other videos. It currently generates 10 second videos, but pro users could soon get up to 15 seconds on the web, with the same ability coming to mobile later. Employees said that it's possible to create longer videos, but since that's a compute heavy task, they're still figuring out how they'll handle it. For everyone else, the biggest task with Sora 2 and the Sora app may be figuring out how to decide what's real. OpenAI wrote in a release that every video made with Sora has multiple signals that show it's AI generated, such as metadata, a moving watermark on videos downloaded from Sora.com or the Sora app, and unspecified internal detection tools to help assess whether a certain video or audio was created by our products. OpenAI said in the release that in some ChatGPT Pro webflows watermarks may be emitted except when real people are depicted. Screen recording also isn't supposed to be possible within the app, but workarounds seem almost inevitable if recent history is any guide, as does misinformation, with the potential to spread like wildfire. As for deep fakes of government figures, celebrities and other public figures, quote Public figures can't be generated in Sora unless they've uploaded a cameo themselves and given consent for it to be used, OpenAI wrote in a release. The same applies to every if you haven't uploaded a cameo, your likeness can't be used. OpenAI employees said during the briefing that it's impossible to generate X rated or quote extreme content via the platform, and that the company isn't currently allowing freeform text prompting for AI generated public figures. They also said that the company moderates video output for potential policy violations and copyright issues. End quote. So obviously I need to get my hands on this ASAP to tell you about it. I've reached out to friends of the show who have invites, so hopefully I can snag an invite myself soon. If you're listening and you've got one, please hit me up. Look, aside from the fact that as mentioned Yesterday, this is OpenAI creating their own social network. This is taking a run directly at TikTok. The thing is, I've been saying for months to other folks in the industry, I don't see how it's anything but inevitable that AI generated content takes over social media. I was chatting with friend of the show Julia Alexander about this last night on X and she was skeptical like, sure, people will have fun playing with this new toy for a while, but then they'll go back to posting regular social media content. I don't know about that. I think that misunderstands what social media is these days. I really, really think we might look back on this as a pivot point where social media and media on the Internet generally fundamentally changes. I'm not saying that is a good or a bad thing yet, because as usual, I don't have a strong opinion either way yet. But I do have a strong gut feeling that this is an inevitability and this might be a historical pivot point.
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Curious about the digital infrastructure that powers today's biggest tech? Then check out the Interconnected Podcast. It's a new series from Equinix that explores emerging tech megatrends and the infrastructure, making them possible through candid conversations with industry experts. The show breaks down highly complex topics in a way that's easy to understand. In the very first episode covering AI in the medical field, the hosts do a great job helping listeners understand the computational models and interconnected data systems powering today's most promising medical developments. From there, they reveal the connection between this infrastructure and the groundbreaking healthcare breakthroughs we're seeing lately, like rapid diagnostics, personalized medicine, and supercharged drug discovery. Stay tuned into the digital infrastructure powering today's biggest tech trends with interconnected. Give it a listen and follow the show on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Weirdly busy week for corporate restructuring in tech satya. Nadella is apparently handing off marketing and operations oversight at Microsoft to Judson Altoff, naming him CEO of Microsoft's commercial business. Nadella is going to focus more on technical work. Quoting the Verge, Altoff has led Microsoft's global sales organization for the past nine years, helping the company build out its Microsoft customer and partner solutions division. He will now also be responsible for the operations and marketing teams that help sell Microsoft's software and services to businesses, but not the engineering teams that help build them. By bringing operations into the commercial business, we can tighten the feedback loop between what customers need and how we deliver and support them, nadella wrote in a memo to Microsoft employees. Additionally, Judson will lead a new commercial leadership team that brings together leaders from engineering, sales, marketing, operations and finance. Microsoft has increasingly given CEO titles to the leaders of some of its biggest businesses, such as Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Soliman. Microsoft also used CEO positions with its GitHub, LinkedIn acquisitions although the GitHub CEO position disappeared after Thomas Domke resigned over the summer, this latest organization shakeup might look like it places Altoff as almost like a deputy to Nadella, particularly because he's now in charge of the main way that Microsoft makes money from its all important enterprise customers. But given there are a variety of CEOs of big businesses at Microsoft, this looks like more of a move to allow Nadella to focus on Microsoft's technical work, rather than a sign he plans to step down anytime soon. End quote Aura has unveiled new Oura Ring 4 versions starting at $499 in 4 finishes with enhanced durability and a thicker 3 1/2 millimeter design and a $99 charging case. The key thing here is even though this is not a next gen product, Aura is adding a splash of color for the first time. Given what we know about Aura's recent sales successes, I wonder if this is their I mini moment. This is the Ring 4 ceramic collection built from zirconia ceramic in four pastel finishes, Midnight Petal, Tide and Cloud. At 499 bucks. The ceramic models are slightly thicker, actually specifically 3.51 millimeters versus the old 2.88 millimeters and heavier 5.1 to 8.1 grams versus 3.3 to 5.2 grams than the standard titanium Ring 4. They do keep the same sensors and size range though. Because the pigments are integral to the ceramic, Aura says the colors won't fade. The company even includes a polishing pad and notes the material is hard enough to scuff softer metals, recommending that you wear it on your non dominant hand. Aura also rolled out Multi ring support so owners can swap between styles without repairing, plus a recycling program for older hardware answering a long standing travel pain point. Aura also introduced its first charging case. The $99 USB clamshell is sized to fit your ring and stores up to five full top ups. Both the ring and the case charge in roughly 90 minutes. New rings will still ship with the standard dock, making the case an optional add on. Oura's broader strategy is clearly to lean into fashion and flexibility, hence the multi ring account feature while keeping the subscription model in place. The subscriptions are $5.99 per month or $69.99 per year. If you weren't aware. The charging case is slated to go on sale later this year. On the health side, Aura is launching health panels, letting members book blood work at more than 2,000 Quest Diagnostics locations and view about 50 biomarkers alongside sleep readiness and activity data inside the Aura app. Tests cost 99 bucks, are FSA HSA eligible and results arrive in app with guidance from oura's AI Advisor, which flags in and out of range values but stop short of medical diagnosis. The feature is US only at launch, but won't be available in Arizona, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Rhode island due to rules within those states. Finally today, here's a tech hardware company we haven't spoken about in a long time. Peloton Ever since its meteoric rise and fall as a pandemic era darling, Peloton has been looking for a redemption ark and guess what? Their attempt at this is enlisting what else but AI? Peloton is rebooting its hardware and software in a sweeping cross training series push that adds AI coaching, rotating 360 degree screens and better audio across the lineup. The new machines bike which starts at $1,695 bike plus starts at $2,695. Then you've got the tread which is $3,295, the tread plus at $6,695 and the row plus at at 3,495 bucks. They all get Sonos tuned, front facing speakers, faster connectivity and small but meaningful quality upgrades. A cushier bike seat for example, A phone tray built in fans on plus models. The headline feature is Peloton iq, a company wide AI layer that personalizes weekly plans, predicts how hard a class will feel based on your history and surfaces tips and insights by pulling in data from services like Apple Health, Garmin and Fitbit. On the premium Bike Plus Tread and Row, a new movement tracking camera unlocks live form cues, rep counting and weight suggestions. Peloton says more than 2,000 strength classes and 50 programs support these features at launch. Hands free voice control lets you pause or tweak workouts mid set. The revamp arrives alongside a membership price hike. The all access plan rises to $49 per month and a broader wellness push that includes partnerships with the Hospital for Special Surgery and Hol Berry's Rest Spin plus the acquisition of Breathwork app Breath Work. The products are on sale now via Peloton and major retailers with AI features also rolling out to existing devices. So in between recording the first part of the show this morning and the second part this afternoon, I got into Sora thanks to well I'm not gonna blow up your spot because then people would harass you for invites. You know who you are. I am Brian McCul on Sora. Couldn't get Brian McC. But if you check my socials tonight, if I have time to experiment this afternoon, I'll post some of my first experiments there. Ryan McC on X, of course. Talk to you tomorrow.