OpenAI’s Sora has already hit more than 1 million downloads

OpenAI’s social AI video-generating app, Sora, has reached over 1 million downloads in fewer than five days since its launch. That’s according to Sora head Bill Peebles, who said on Wednesday that Sora racked up downloads faster than ChatGPT did at launch despite being an invite-only app.

The company launched its new Sora app for iOS on September 30th, giving users the ability to scroll through a feed of AI-generated videos, as well as create ones of their own using OpenAI’s new Sora 2 model. It also lets users insert the likeness of themselves or a friend into an AI video with a “cameos” feature. My colleague Hayden Field found that the app is filled with memes, OpenAI employees deepfaking themselves, and what can only be described as AI-generated slop.

Already, the Sora app has sparked backlash after users began generating copyrighted characters in circumstances far from brand-friendly, leading OpenAI to give those copyright holders more control over their content. The company has started letting users specify how their likeness is used in Sora as well.

“Team working hard to keep up with surging growth,” Peebles said. “More features and fixes to overmoderation on the way!” The Sora app is only available in the US and Canada for now, and currently sits at the top of Apple’s App Store.