The news: OpenAI’s Sora app surged to the top of the iPhone App Store’s free app chart despite its invite-only status, marking consumer demand for AI-heavy social experiences.

• It surpassed both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, the latter of which recently topped App Store charts with its social media-friendly Nano Banana AI image-editing feature.
• Sora logged 164,000 installs in the first two days of its release, per Appfigures data cited by TechCrunch. It’s not available yet on Android devices.

The background: Sora can produce videos with audio, such as cinematic scenes and anime shorts, from text or image prompts.

The Sora app offers a TikTok-esque feed where users can share their videos and remix other creators’ videos into original content.

Trendspotting: OpenAI and Meta are both betting that socially driven AI experiences can help monetize the technology, drive engagement, and encourage adoption of their genAI tools.

Sora could be a:

• Short-form video powerhouse. With the popularity of platforms like Reels and Shorts, Sora stands to gain traction as users seek short-form content experiences.
• Social funnel. While ChatGPT users can converse one-on-one with a chatbot, the Sora app makes AI use feel like a community-driven activity.
• New social base. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have human-created content at their roots. Sora is betting that AI can be the foundation of the feed itself.

Counterpoint: Some users are raising concerns about the rise of “AI slop” paired with a potentially addictive algorithm.

• Sora could merge the addictive nature of large language models with the mindless scrolling of social media, per Vox.
• It may also leave users adrift in a sea of deepfake content, struggling to tell what’s real versus genAI.

Our take: This is a new creative playground, where brands can test AI-first, community-driven campaigns with a highly engaged audience. Marketers should experiment with various types of content to see what goes viral in an AI-first social environment to prepare for a new social media landscape and capitalize on emerging platforms.