OpenAI’s Sora Hits No. 1 Spot on Apple App Store

OpenAI’s AI-generated video app has reached the top of the app charts — overtaking even ChatGPT.

As of Friday morning, Sora was the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store. The app, which lets users generate videos of themselves and others, beat out Google’s Gemini app and OpenAI’s own ChatGPT in the rankings.

OpenAI released Sora, its stand-alone video app, on Tuesday. For now, the app is invite-only. Access codes for Sora were selling for close to $45 each in some cases on eBay, Business Insider reported on Wednesday.

Those with access can use short, written prompts to generate 10-second videos, including “Cameos,” or clips that feature users and their friends — if they give permission to use their likenesses.

The app uses a new version of Sora’s audio and video generation model, Sora 2. While an earlier version of the model was previously available through ChatGPT, OpenAI said this week that Sora 2 can generate more realistic images and better synchronize sounds with the video it generates.

The result, as some users have found, is the ability to generate fairly convincing videos of themselves and their friends doing whatever they can imagine, from winning a gold medal at the Olympics to being spokespeople for coffee chain Dunkin’.

Sora is also raising questions about how copyright law applies to the videos it creates. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that OpenAI told Hollywood studios and talent agencies that Sora would use characters and other work that they own, and that they would have to opt out if they disagreed. Business Insider’s Peter Kafka wrote that the approach could mean a “radical transformation of the way the media business works.”