Sora 2 and the Limits of Digital Narcissism

What we enjoy about generative A.I. may also be its ultimate limitation: we want to see ourselves. During the past few weeks, I've seen a proliferation of A.I.-generated video in my social-media feeds and group texts. The more impressive--or, at least, more personalized--of these have been the work of Sora 2, the updated version of OpenAI's video-generation platform, which the company released on an invitation-only basis at the end of September. This iteration of Sora comes with a socially networked app, and it appears to be much better at integrating you and your friends, say, into a stock scene. What this means is that, when you open up Sora 2, you'll likely see a video of someone you know winning a Nobel Prize, getting drafted into the N.B.A., or flying a bomber plane in the Second World War.