Forget the discussion on whether OpenAI’s GPT-5 launch is lackluster or if it can revitalize the faltering AI Agents market. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has already redirected attention to the release of Sora 2, the forthcoming iteration of its text-to-video engine, along with Sora by OpenAI, a new iPhone application that rapidly ascended to #1 in the App Store on Wednesday. This is notable, particularly as access to the Sora app remains invite-only.

“Explore, play, and share your imagination in a community created for experimentation,” states the App Store description for Sora by OpenAI. Essentially, OpenAI is entering the social media landscape akin to Facebook, offering an exclusive service and an innovative feed. OpenAI has also stressed the simplicity of involving yourself, your friends, and even deepfakes of nearly anyone (including Altman himself) in Sora’s short video creations.

Nevertheless, OpenAI arrives somewhat late to the social AI video app party. Following the launch of Character.AI’s Feed, dubbed “the world’s first AI-native social feed” in August, AI developers have begun what could be viewed as a new shift towards video. Meta’s Vibes debuted on the Meta AI app in September: Like Feed and Sora, it features an endless scroll of short videos, under 10 seconds, from a community of creators. (Midjourney has a comparable AI video web feed, although a Midjourney mobile app has yet to be introduced.)

In all instances, you’re encouraged to remix these videos and add your own twist. You’re not prompted to question the sustainability of these endless-scroll services, considering the still-unknown amounts of energy consumed by each AI video generation.

Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand described Feed in a manner reminiscent of Altman’s most audacious forecasts: “The boundary between creator and consumer is fading away,” he noted. Come for a typical social media “lean-back experience,” stick around to craft a “new epic adventure,” Anand continued. “Doomscrolling is obsolete. We’re ushering in an era of AI-driven entertainment.”

That’s one viewpoint. Another is that these companies are vying to construct the most favored “infinite slop machine,” as one description of Meta Vibes puts it. It’s insufficient that social media platforms like Facebook are teeming with AI-generated artwork of questionable merit; now we are about to be inundated with copious amounts of AI video content that will necessitate dedicated apps to manage the influx.

Which AI video feed will reign supreme?

Ironically, the sheer volume of AI content could exacerbate real-world environmental challenges. Video feeds like Feed, Sora, Vibes, and Midjourney demand considerable data center utilization — and for many data centers worldwide, this translates to carbon emissions in some manner. This is why once-environmentally conscious tech giants like Google and Microsoft are subtly retracting their commitments to renewable energy.

Are we fated for a different kind of doomscrolling, where multiple endless-scroll feeds capture our attention and elevate our senses of self by featuring virtual representations of ourselves?

There is optimism, however, that we are simply witnessing the tech product cycle’s Cambrian Explosion phase.

The original Cambrian Explosion, half a billion years ago, was a relatively short phase in evolutionary history. During that time, the majority of major life forms on Earth appeared — primarily because they developed eyesight. It was followed by an extinction event — a decrease in atmospheric oxygen levels that wiped out many species.

Likewise, we have encountered this scenario before in the tech industry, where a single product claims market supremacy.

There was a Cambrian Explosion of personal computer operating systems during the early 1980s. Microsoft Windows triumphed in the early 1990s. Apple’s MacOS barely endured, even though it was often viewed as superiorly designed software. Users simply favored what the majority was using. (Even today, MacOS holds a mere 15 percent market share; Apple gained its current position by dominating the smartphone industry instead.)

The boom of search engines in the 1990s — recall Alta Vista and Ask Jeeves? — rapidly succumbed to Google’s supremacy in the 2000s. Why? Because users sought the search engine with the most effective algorithm, which turned out to be PageRank.

We have also observed this in the social media sphere. Friendster and MySpace were part of the Cambrian Explosion of the 2000s; when everything settled in 2010, Facebook was at the forefront. The network effect took precedence. You were on Facebook because everyone else joined Facebook.

It is premature to identify which AI video feed will triumph in the impending contest, and not simply because few individuals can utilize the Sora app currently. OpenAI, Character.AI, Meta, and Midjourney all adopt slightly varied methods to video presentation and remixing, backed by different LLMs.

The one possessing superior technology may not necessarily be the one that garners the most users. For instance, you could have the finest AI video on Sora, but if everyone is