What Next - Hollywood vs. A.I. Slop
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2026
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
OpenAI is shutting down its video generator Sora less than six months after it launched, and just three months since it signed a deal with Disney. Is this an A.I. company fine tuning its offerings, or the long-awaited popping of the A.I. bubble?
Guest: Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Jason, can you tell me about the most striking video you have ever seen that was created by OpenAI's SORA? |
| 0:14.7 | Oh my God, that's such a good question. |
| 0:18.8 | Jason Kebler is a co-founder of 404 Media. |
| 0:23.0 | The one that comes to mind immediately was SpongeBob standing at a bully pulpit, |
| 0:32.1 | wearing a Nazi uniform and giving a Hitler speech in German to like an audience of bikini bottom fish. |
| 0:45.9 | This video, Jason saw it on the very first day Sora launched. And it was not just SpongeBob doing this Hitler cosplay. |
| 0:53.8 | Because of the way that Sora worked, it's like you could remix those. |
| 0:57.4 | And so I could like swipe right and left. |
| 1:00.2 | And the next video was like Cartman doing the same thing. |
| 1:03.1 | There was like Snoopy. |
| 1:05.2 | There was a video of Sam Altman being arrested for shoplifting, a dog plucking a steak |
| 1:09.9 | out of a grocery case, and Pikachu, DJing. |
| 1:14.6 | None of this was real. |
| 1:16.3 | Nothing on SORO was real. |
| 1:18.8 | But with a few simple prompts, this AI tool could make stunning videos that brought your most |
| 1:24.4 | manic dreams to life. |
| 1:27.3 | Jason always sort of wondered, |
| 1:29.3 | who was this tool for? |
| 1:31.8 | That didn't seem to matter, though. |
| 1:33.7 | Even a few months back, Sora felt unstoppable. |
| 1:38.2 | It just felt like there was a moment where, like, |
| 1:40.7 | everyone was kind of losing their minds all at the same time over Sora. |
... |
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