Sora: Not Dead, But Nobody’s Watching

Remember when OpenAI dropped those Sora demo clips and everyone lost their minds? 🤯 That cinematic lady walking through Tokyo, the woolly mammoths, it felt like we were watching the future get invented in real time. And then… nothing. The hype just evaporated. I was genuinely curious about it, kept checking in, messing around with AI video tools, and at some point I just stopped caring. Not because the technology got worse. Because the content got boring. 👋

So has Sora died already? That’s what I want to get into, because I think the answer is way more interesting than people realize.

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• Sora’s hype died fast not because the tech failed, but because the content it produces is monotonous, short, and riddled with visual artifacts that kill the novelty
• The “Sora style” is already a cliché—everything looks like the same cinematic stock footage, with zero variety compared to TikTok or YouTube
• Clip length is a dealbreaker: five-second AI videos can’t compete, and until we get consistent 40+ second clips nobody’s sticking around
• Creators using custom local models (like Corridor Digital) are producing far better results than off‑the‑shelf tools—hinting at where the real future is

The Novelty Wore Off. Fast.

Here’s what happened with AI video generation and it’s the same thing that happens with every flashy tech demo: the first time you see it, your brain goes *holy crap*. The second time, you notice things. Third time? Bored.

I went through this exact cycle. When Sora first started getting attention it was gonna be the next big thing, the next everything, and it was swinging for the fences making its own app and all that. Interesting concept. But then nobody really talks about it independently anymore. People take things from Sora and put them on other platforms, but the whole point was supposed to be living on its own platform. That was the play.

I was actually using Sora like it was supposed to be used for a while. And then I kind of stopped. The video processing is so interesting and realistic at first, and then you start picking up on the subtle stuff and it just doesn’t feel as interesting anymore.

This isn’t unique to Sora either. Every generative AI video tool—Runway, Pika, Kling, whatever—follows the same diminishing returns curve. The wow factor has a shelf life of about 72 hours before your brain recalibrates and starts spotting every weird hand, every melting face, every physics-defying shadow.

The Artifacts Are the Problem (And They’re Everywhere)

Let me be real: the artifacts became too evident. And I’m not talking about minor stuff you need to freeze-frame to catch. I’m talking about the kind of visual glitches that yank you out of whatever you’re watching.

Objects morph into each other. People sprout extra fingers. A dog’s legs just… do something wrong. Physics stops making sense for half a second and your brain flags it immediately. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. That’s the thing about AI video artifacts—they create this uncanny valley effect that makes you uncomfortable rather than entertained.

And look, I get that the tech is improving. Google’s Veo is in the mix. China’s Kling claims it can generate up to two minutes of 1080p video. But “improving” and “watchable” are different conversations. Nobody sits down to watch a video and thinks, “well, the artifact count was lower this time, three stars.”

The Real Issue: Everything Looks the Same

This is the part that bugs me the most and I think it’s the thing that actually killed Sora’s momentum more than anything technical.

It’s all the same style.

Every Sora clip has this hyper-clean, cinematic, slightly dreamlike look. It’s gorgeous the first time. By the fiftieth time, it’s visual wallpaper. There’s even a whole conversation about whether the “Sora look” is already a cliché—and yeah, it is.

Compare that to YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram: someone films handheld in their kitchen, then a polished studio production, then a screen recording, then a chaotic meme edit. That range of visual styles keeps your brain engaged.

That sameness is a content problem, not a tech problem. And content problems are harder to fix because you can’t just throw more GPUs at “boring”.

Five Seconds Isn’t Enough for Anyone

Alright, here’s another thing that really stood out to me: the clips are just too short.

OpenAI says Sora can technically generate videos up to a minute long, but most of what circulates are these tiny five‑to‑ten second bursts. Even TikTok and Reels—platforms built for short content—tend to be a little longer and meatier.

I genuinely believe that if you could get a consistent 40‑second clip with minimal artifacts and real stylistic variety, that’s when an app like this could really pop off. But we’re not close to that right now.

Some People Are Getting It Right (Just Not With Sora)

There are AI videos with barely any artifacts that are actually interesting to watch. And it’s funny because the people making the best stuff usually aren’t using Sora, Veo, or other big-name consumer tools.

I was thinking about this—there’s that group… I think it’s the Door Brothers? No wait, not the chemical—it’s that creative studio that makes really cool videos. They’re almost certainly Corridor Digital, and what they’re doing is fundamentally different from off‑the‑shelf AI video workflows.

That gap between what dedicated studios can produce and what the average person gets from typing a prompt into Sora is enormous—and not closing soon.

So Is Sora Actually Dead?

Here’s the correction: Sora did launch publicly in December 2024 as part of OpenAI’s “12 Days of OpenAI”, available to ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers. So when people ask “is Sora dead,” what they really mean is: did the hype die?

The hype didn’t fade because OpenAI messed up or the tech broke. It’s because AI video content right now—no matter the tool—just isn’t interesting enough to make people come back: artifacts are obvious, clips are short, and the look is uniform.

Where This Goes From Here

Is Sora dead? The tech isn’t dead—the interest is. That’s a tougher fix than any rendering pipeline or diffusion architecture.

If someone cracks 40+ seconds with minimal artifacts and real stylistic variety, everything changes. Right now, it’s a bunch of five‑second clips that all look the same—and people don’t want to watch that.