Geoff Brumfiel

Well gang, it's happened: OpenAI has built a platform filled exclusively with fake, AI content.

I've been playing with it for a few days, and I think it's safe to say we're basically kissing reality goodbye.

Here's the story: www.npr.org/2025/10/03/n...

And some thoughts 🧵

The truth is I could really go for a martini right now.

LOOK INTO THE ORB DANIELLE!

Logon and share your face Danielle... Only good things will happen I promise.

I will say I more firmly believe that journalism has a future than I have at any other point in my career….

Bottom line, Sora has effectively eliminated the bar for generating very high quality artificial video content. I don't can't quite get my head entirely around what that means, but on the bright side, it's Friday!

And I'm going to admit it: the app is a ton of fun, and you can use it to make all your dreams come true (cc @wslafoy.bsky.social).

Oh look, NPR's @bobbyallyn.bsky.social literally just put me in a boy band while I was making this thread. That's because I let him make videos with my face.

Sora does have tight controls on who can make videos with your face (or that of anyone living). They seem to have paid attention to that.

❌I was able to generate fake videos of terrorist attacks and drone strikes, seemingly against OpenAI policies.

☢️I also got Sora to generate videos about Sarin and (of course) nuclear weapons (don't worry, none of it was accurate/useful).

😱 And lots of Nazis.

But people also (apparently) want to make SpongeBob SquarePants into a fascist dictator. And I wonder how Nickelodeon feels about that.

This brings me to the THIRD thing I'd say about Sora, the safety controls are kind of weaksauce....

"People are eager to engage with their family and friends... as well as stories, characters, and worlds they love, and we see new opportunities for creators to deepen their connection with the fans," said Vaun Shetty, OpenAI's head of media partnerships, in a written statement shared with NPR.

Another thing to know about Sora is that there is a TON of content on there involving popular brands and copyrighted material. McDonalds and Pokemon seem to be favorites.

On that second conspiracy theory, I'd just note that another interesting choice with Sora was a decision to allow historical figures. So not only can I create a fake moon landing, I can create a frankly amazing video of Richard Nixon TELLING you that it's a fake.

Or that the moon landing was faked! It wasn't but Sora doesn't know that.

So is it a slop machine? Yes. Yes, I think it is.

But it's more than that. Sora can also bring your favorite fringe ideas to life... like chemtrails!

(this is seriously maybe the video I'm most proud of so far...)

Sora, on the other hand, requires no time and virtually no thought to create VERY realistic content. Here's a dumb idea I had before I even poured my coffee...

YouTube video by Jon Lajoie / Wolfie’s Just Fine Jesus Podcast - Easter ep

Now to be clear, AI video has been around for awhile and a lot of it is REALLY good. Like this video of Jesus talking to the Easter Bunny by comedian @jonlajoie.bsky.social (huge fan Jon, can't watch it enough).

But doing something like this takes time and thought... youtube.com/shorts/inqlc...

That video of Sam Altman literally took me 3 min to make, and that's the first thing to say about Sora. It is amazing at generating... anything. When I showed expert Solomon Messing of NYU this stuff yesterday he was blown away.

"This just leaves me sort of speechless," he said.

First off, everything you see in this thread is not real. All videos posted below this line were generated with Sora, including this one, where I pretty easily framed out the Sora watermarks.

Well gang, it's happened: OpenAI has built a platform filled exclusively with fake, AI content.

I've been playing with it for a few days, and I think it's safe to say we're basically kissing reality goodbye.

Here's the story: www.npr.org/2025/10/03/n...

And some thoughts 🧵

With the advent of LLMs, Journalism may be dead but Robert Redford, apparently, is not.

"This [autism] is artificially induced."

"Don't take Tylenol. There's no downside. Don't take it."

“It’s too much liquid. To many things are going into the baby… and the size of it…”

“Don’t give Tylenol to the baby after the baby’s born. Don’t take Tylenol. Don’t have your baby take Tylenol.”

“They say that there’s no problem if you do each shot separately. Not put together. Some MMR, go out and do it separately.”

Trump says give Hep B vaccine at 12 because it’s a “sexually transmitted disease.”

In addition to this statement Trump is now giving vaccine advice.

“I’m just making these statements from me I’m not making them from these doctors… they talk about different results, different studies. I talk about a lot of common sense.”

“Don’t take Tylenol… don’t take it…. Fight like hell not to take it…”

A color drawing of a Vela satellite orbiting Earth. The satellite has multiple antennas sticking out of it and is covered in small solar panels.

Today in 1979, a United States Vela nuclear-test-monitoring satellite detected the distinctive double-flash signature of a nuclear explosion over the South Atlantic Ocean. Although a White House scientific panel later dismissed the possibility, many speculated it was a clandestine Israeli test.