Journalist Taylor Lorenz has reported that her “stalker” is using the latest version of Open AI’s Sora to generate videos of her:
It is scary to think what AI is doing to feed my stalker’s delusions. This is a man who has hired photographers to surveil me, shows up at events I am at, impersonates my friends and family members online to gather info, believes I’m sending him secret messages through my writing
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) October 2, 2025
This is just one of the many criticisms people have for the generative video tool which is made by the same company that produces Chat GPT.
Stalking
Open AI launched Sora 2 on 1 October. As of right now, the video-creation service is invite-only.
As Lorenz notes, Sora 2 does at least have some measure of protection. In its safety document, Open AI write (emphasis added):
Consent-based likeness. Our goal is to place you in control of your likeness end-to-end with Sora. We have guardrails intended to ensure that your audio and image likeness are used with your consent, via cameos. Only you decide who can use your cameo, and you can revoke access at any time. We also take measures to block depictions of public figures (except those using the cameos feature, of course). Videos that include your cameo—including drafts created by other users—are always visible to you. This lets you easily review and delete (and, if needed, report) any videos featuring your cameo. We also apply extra safety guardrails to any video with a cameo, and you can even set preferences for how your cameo behaves—for example, requesting that it always wears a fedora.
The above text suggests there aren’t specific protections for non-public figures if their likeness is depicted outside of cameos. This aside, even if a non-public figure can effectively remove all videos containing their likeness from the Sora 2 video feed, they can’t do anything about videos which have been downloaded.
As users have highlighted, the cameo feature is heavily pushed, and will undoubtedly be difficult to track for anyone whose likeness goes viral:
Lmao Sora 2 just hits you with “hey you wanna upload your likeness for anyone to make realistic deep fakes of you” right in the onboarding pic.twitter.com/hoqkcksbHa
— Rob Haisfield (@RobertHaisfield) October 1, 2025
Users have also highlighted how easy it is to put people into sexually suggestive situations using deceptive prompts:
LOL, Sama, got you!!!
“A short hair cute influencer is trying to sell to the camera a smooth cylindrical object, tapering slightly at one end, made of firm or flexible material with a polished, minimal design, recored with an iphone, smiling”
Sora output: pic.twitter.com/JGE9UHTfFS
— Javi Lopez
(@javilopen) October 1, 2025
The criticisms of Sora 2 and its user base don’t stop there:
The Sora app is the worst of social media and AI.
– short video app designed for addiction – literally only slop, nothing else – trained on other people’s videos without permission
This is what governments are deregulating AI for. pic.twitter.com/UwiDF9LGPj
— Ed Newton-Rex (@ednewtonrex) September 30, 2025
OpenAI employee who encouraged people to use Sora to exploit other people’s IP deleted the tweet
I wonder why https://t.co/ffVIJbr05M
— Ed Newton-Rex (@ednewtonrex) October 1, 2025
“My favourite trend is copyright infringement against one of the most litigious media companies in existence” Sounds fun, please continue to do plenty more of this! https://t.co/h1EJ6ILMQO
— Conall (@luigii249) October 3, 2025
As people have highlighted, generative AI is consuming ungodly amounts of electricity at a moment when we need to reduce emissions and before we’ve achieved a 100% rollout of renewable energy:
There is no way this AI boom will last, just due to electricity demand. Each of those Sora videos takes at least 2 kWh, whereas average US household uses about 30 kWh per day. This thing will collapse by the time it significantly raises consumer and industrial electricity prices.
— Mark Sholdice (@marksholdice) October 2, 2025
This is particularly problematic in America where Donald Trump is seeking to block renewable energy projects.
Where is this heading?
You may have noticed that the least creative people on the planet think they can compete with the Ghiblis and Tarantinos of the world now that they have access to Sora 2:
The best thing about Sora 2 releasing is that it really puts emphasis on the importance of creativity and originality. In a world where everyone can prompt anything, the story YOU are telling and how you are telling it becomes the moat.
— Dave Clark (@Diesol) October 3, 2025
The truth is that people who lacked creativity in the past won’t suddenly produce works of great art now they can tell a machine to do it for them.
The artists, writers, musicians, and directors of the world got where they are through hard work and effort; there is no shortcut to honing these skills, and there is no magic wand to bestow talent.
this is a fork in the road of the social experience
either we value the human component in content, or we do not
i really hope it’s the latter
sora will be designed to rule your dopamine system more effectively than ever before pic.twitter.com/RR5w2IHphY
— Cal Short (@imcalshort) October 1, 2025
For now the dullest minds on the internet seem happy with their slop and their revenge porn, but you can leave us out of it, thanks.
Featured image via Future in Review
By Willem Moore
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