Do you constantly scroll reels on Instagram, or Tiktok, or Facebook? Then you must have encountered those outrageously realistic AI created videos, which have come a very long way from that disturbingly bad Will Smith eating spaghetti video.

One of the source for such kind of recent AI videos would be from Sora, initially released by OpenAI recently in December 2024, but their Sora 2.0 released even more recently which has been the rage. So many whatsapp forwards are also being sent around which many older citizens who are tech illeterate seem to believe are true videos.

The Arrival of Sora

In December 2024, OpenAI officially launched Sora, a groundbreaking text-to-video model that can generate short video clips from simple text prompts. Available to ChatGPT Plus and Pro users, Sora enables users to produce up to 20-second videos in 1080p resolution across multiple aspect ratios.

The model can be said as one of the pivotal moments in the evolution of creative tools, which is blending AI’s leaps in imaging with motion and storytelling, as some would say. But with profound power comes serious problems. What we will be discussing today is if Sora represent a transformative tool for startups, content creators and businesses ideas, or is it a potential risk to society?

Why Sora Looks Like a Boon

Creative Liberation for Startups, Corporate & Marketing Agencies

For a startup or stealth startup focusing on visual storytelling, Sora does present enormous promise. Imagine crafting high-quality video ads, cinematic product showcases, or immersive social content without expensive gear or large teams. The model can help optimize working capital and enhance ROI by significantly lowering production costs.

Startups or any marketing agency that leverage Sora as part of their business engine could scale video output rapidly and invest their resources in marketing, brand building and roadmap expansion, rather than allocating large budgets solely to video production.

Competitive Edge in the Marketplace
In a crowded marketplace generating distinctive video content can act as a differentiator. Brands that adopt Sora early may build stronger-than-usual profit margin advantages simply by reducing cost of goods sold (in this case “cost of production”). Proprietary access to such a tool may serve as a temporary MOAT until competitors catch up.

Moreover, creators gain access to a flexible “product” platform, one that enables prototypes, social campaigns or immersive training modules with minimal investment. That adaptability appeals especially to a younger generation (gen z) accustomed to rapid iteration and multimedia fluency.

Broad Use Cases across Industries
Sora’s utility isn’t limited to startups alone. Educational platforms can generate interactive video lessons. E-commerce companies can produce rich product visualizations. Entertainment and social media channels can churn out remixable short-form clips. Even in each scenario, the tool can enhance engagement, lower entry barriers and open up visual content creation to a far wider audience than traditional video-centric workflows.

Sora the Current King of AI Slop?

Despite its promise, Sora is not perfect. According to OpenAI’s own disclosures, the model struggles with physics realism, object permanence and long-duration coherence.

One early user commented:

“It literally cannot do anything right… I’m paying a decent amount for something that’s cheaper or free elsewhere." Those warnings matter, especially for businesses ideas relying on high fidelity, consistent brand visualization or cinematic storytelling. At present, Sora appears spectacular for short clips and demo-style videos, but falls short of full-scale production reliability.

Cost and Infrastructure Considerations
Generating high-resolution, high-quality video still demands considerable compute. For small startups with limited working capital, the “cost per video” might be higher than expected, which is undercutting profit margins unless volume and efficiency are carefully managed.

In other words, while Sora lowers production barriers, it doesn’t entirely eliminate economic constraints. The marketplace advantage might evaporate when broader access to the model reduces first-mover benefits.

Ethical and Societal Risks

The biggest concern may be how Sora could enable harmful content. Text-to-video raises the stakes for deepfakes, misinformation and copyright violation. OpenAI has already paused celebrity cameo features and faces pressure following union complaints. Recently, even Neil deGrasse Tyson reacted to a deepfake video of himself which said ‘the earth is flat’, and raising concerns of AI videos being used for terrifying reasons.

Sora could be used to generate convincing fake videos for political propaganda, scams, or other malicious purposes, making it a "scourge on our information ecosystem," - David Karpf, an associate professor at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs

There are also concerns that the ability to create realistic synthetic videos will make it harder to distinguish fact from fiction, potentially weakening trust in online information, news, and media in the coming days. Platforms like Sora are blurring the lines of reality.

There are also concerns of environmental impact due to the computational power required to generate videos which is enormous, and brings up a huge concern about AI's significant energy consumption and its contribution and impact towards climate change.

There has already been enough garbage useless content online which has made a whole new generation of doom scrollers, and some argue that AI-generated slop content could further disconnect people from genuine human interaction which is already diminishing, as rapidly increasing AI slop content may lead to a focus on "artificial connection and manufactured dopamine" rather than real relationships.

You can already find people dependent on AI companionship, which is increasing a lot day by day.

According to OpenAI's new data, over a million people talk to ChatGPT about suicide weekly. This is setting a dangerous precedent on how seriously these AI tools are taken by general public, and how these companies are going to handle such issues, before governments and regulations catch up and step in to regulate these tools and companies legally and ethically.

These risks mean the same model that empowers creators can also empower bad actors, further fueling disinformation campaigns, synthetic violence or unauthorized likenesses. When content becomes trivial to generate, how will society distinguish real from fabricated?

Weighing the Debate: Boon or Bane?

In Favor: Transformative Potential

  • Accessibility: Lowers the cost and speed of video production.
  • Innovation: Enables new formats, interactive storytelling and immersive experiences.
  • Competitive edge: Provides early adopters with a temporary lead in content production and engagement.
  • Business engine multiplier: Especially for startups, it allows redirecting resources from expensive shoots to growth-oriented activities.

Against: Serious Risks and Uncertain Traction

  • Unreliable outputs: The current model has quality, coherence and realism limitations.
  • Hidden costs: Infrastructure, compute and licensing may cut into profit margin.
  • Ethical fallout: Deepfakes, copyright abuse and misinformation could erode trust in visual media.
  • Rapid commoditisation: The marketplace advantage may vanish fast as competitors catch up, meaning first-mover zones shrink quickly.

Practical Guidance for Startups and Creators

If you’re considering Sora in your content stack:

  1. Start small. Use Sora for short form, testcases, or high-volume social-ready clips.
  2. Combine with strong brand/product differentiation. Make sure your startup’s value-prop isn’t only “we used AI video” but also has unique content, strategy or community.
  3. Monitor economics closely. Track time to generate, cost per output, engine utilization and ROI.
  4. Integrate safeguards. For creators and platforms, plan for governance, rights clearance and watermarking.
  5. Build switching costs. Make your process or ecosystem sticky, whether that’s proprietary style templates, editing workflows or integration with your product or marketplace.If used correctly it’s a remarkable technological leap and an unprecedented tool for creators and startups. But the very power that enables creativity also opens doors to misuse, ethical risk and economic pressure. The key for any startup company or creator is to treat Sora not as a magic bullet, but as a potent tool within a larger strategy.

If used thoughtfully, it could become a game-changer; if used carelessly, it may contribute to a collapse in value for creative work and broader societal trust in visual media.

But is Sora a boon or a bane? The answer: both, but tilting more towards AI slop garbage produced everyday, which is making things worse more than it is making the world a better place. Only time can tell the cause of effects of these technological advancements, which will keep producing slop until the AI bubble bursts, VC money dries up, or proper regulations are set to mitigate it from a disaster.

The question remains, is Sora making the humanity and society as a whole better or worse As for as a marketing tool, the younger generation of creators and founders should approach Sora with ambition and caution, as this is a new frontier of the startup engine and a new arena in the marketplace. Treat the model as a strategic accelerator, not a substitute for vision, brand and responsible innovation. Hope these above points help clear your doubts as a Desi Founder. Check out more case studies about Startups here.