For a generative video model like OpenAI's Sora 2 to achieve viral adoption, it needs a universally appealing, simple-to-execute prompt, much like DALL-E's "Studio Ghibli moment." A feature like "upload your profile picture and turn it into a video" would engage a mass audience far more effectively than just showcasing raw technical capabilities.
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The backlash to Meta's AI video feed "Vibes" stemmed from its impersonal, generic content. This contrasts with ChatGPT's viral "Studio Ghibli" filter, which succeeded by letting users apply an AI aesthetic to their own photos. Successful consumer AI must empower self-expression, not just serve curated assets.
The novelty of AI-generated launch videos provides a temporary 'alpha' for startups to capture attention. However, this advantage is fleeting. As the aesthetic becomes common, its ability to act as a compelling hook will dissipate, similar to how early Studio Ghibli-style AI images went from viral to ignored once commoditized.
Synthesia initially targeted Hollywood with AI dubbing—a "vitamin" for experts. They found a much larger, "house-on-fire" problem by building a platform for the billions of people who couldn't create video at all, democratizing the medium instead of just improving it for existing professionals.
AI video tools like Sora optimize for high production value, but popular internet content often succeeds due to its message and authenticity, not its polish. The assumption that better visuals create better engagement is a risky product bet, as it iterates on an axis that users may not value.
Ben Thompson argues that ChatGPT succeeded because the creator was also the consumer, receiving immediate, personalized value. In contrast, AI video is created for an audience. He questions whether Sora's easily-made content is compelling enough for anyone other than the creator to watch, posing a major consumption hurdle.
The expansion of Gen AI-powered effects on YouTube Shorts allows any brand to create custom visual effects. A small company can design a popular, non-branded effect that goes viral, associating their niche with a widespread trend and gaining massive organic exposure.
Proficiency with AI video generators is a strategic business advantage, not just a content skill. Like early mastery of YouTube or Instagram, it creates a defensible distribution channel by allowing individuals and startups to own audience attention, which is an unfair advantage in the market.
Instead of manually writing prompts for a video AI like Sora 2, delegate the task to a language model like Claude. Instruct it to first research Sora's specific capabilities and then generate prompts that are explicitly optimized for that platform's strengths, leading to higher-quality, more effective outputs.
Nano Banana's popularity stemmed from fun, accessible entry points like creating self-portraits. This 'fun gateway' successfully onboarded users, who then discovered deeper, practical applications like photo editing, learning, and problem-solving within the same tool.
The key to Sora's social app wasn't just generating beautiful videos, but allowing users to inject themselves and friends via "cameos." This non-obvious feature transformed the experience from a tech demo into a human-centric social platform, achieving immediate internal product-market fit.
