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Goodbye to Sora

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Re: Goodbye to Sora

#441

Post by coke12 »

wolvoleo wrote: post #340
blharr wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There aren't a lot of highly technical audiobooks or ones that give the same specificity that would be the same as an academic paper

Not yet but it seems like they're getting to the point of AI narration finally being good enough to make any text an 'audiobook'. Having said that I absolutely hate the audio format, I only used it when I had to drive or when I swam lanes. But these days I do neither.

No, reading verbatim from a technical paper is way too dense. You need a lot of filler words to slow it down and repetition to make it stick when read aloud.

Re: Goodbye to Sora

#442

Post by platevoltage »

asnyder wrote: post #421
platevoltage wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone X's new feature where it approximated you facial expressions on a 3D character using the facial recognition sensors blew my mind as well. It was a party trick. I can't remember the last time I touched it. That's what SORA is, or was.

I know the developer who worked on it took pride in the outcome. Hopefully they added some additional characters to keep it fresh.

To be fair, it was really cool. It was also a tech demo with no real practical application.

Re: Goodbye to Sora

#444

Post by EugeneOZ »

iugtmkbdfil834 wrote: post #279
bschwindHN wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, that's not the "proper" way to think about it, that's just your opinion. As it stands today, AI video generation tools like Sora suck up useful energy and produce things that are useless at best (throwaway short form videos), and harmful at worst (propaganda, deepfakes). Rich people were always going to do what they wanted anyway, "democratizing" that doesn't make the situation better.

So only rich people can propagandize? How is that better?

There are open-source alternatives:

https://mochi1ai.com/

https://wan.video/

and others. There are free to use tools also.

Re: Goodbye to Sora

#445

Post by rogerrogerr »

fc417fc802 wrote: post #423
rogerrogerr wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking about this while typing. I don’t really care about classically animated content; it’s generally not trying to be indistinguishable from real life and I don’t feel like my brain trains on it. But I think I do have similar feelings about special effects. A difference is that special effects tend to depict scenarios very outside of the envelope of normal experience, so probably not very damaging if my mod…

To your point about cars - such an expectation could well save your life now that there are so many EVs on the road. You do not want to hang out in one of those after a collision. Regardless, I agree that it's probably a bad idea to instill defective mental models in people.

Eh, the stats don’t seem to support EVs being terribly explosion-prone either. In comparison to gas cars, maybe, but both are very safe in absolute terms. Harder to extinguish if they do catch fire, but I think if I came upon a fresh accident and there’s no immediate signs of a battery fire (airbags smoke, it’s normal), I would still leave the victim in the car seated until someone trained shows up.

Sure, be ready to get them out, and if they’re trapped and it’s going to be a while until fire shows up start working on that. But my mental model is that for any road legal car that is not currently on fire, there is a higher chance you’ll cause harm by rashly moving a victim than that a victim will be suddenly consumed by an enormous Hollywood style conflagration.

Re: Goodbye to Sora

#446

Post by anshumankmr »

mathattack wrote: post #183
meken wrote: post #163

I had so much fun making videos with my mom when it came out. During the first two weeks, we made over 100 cameo videos together - we were constantly running up against the upload limit. It unleashed tons of genuine creativity, joy, and laughter from us. After those first two weeks though, we just… didn’t use it again. The novelty wore off and there wasn’t anything really to bring us back. That was the real downfall…

This is consistent with a lot of AI apps. I fell in love with Gamma and haven’t used it in forever. Same with NotebookLM.

NotebookLM is great for learning I feel

Re: Goodbye to Sora

#447

Post by Eufrat »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #382
johnfn wrote: post #321

As someone who generally liked the products that OpenAI puts out, I think Sora was their first product that I really didn't like. I liked GPT primarily because I felt like it respected me: I never felt like it was trying to distract me from my work or get me to waste time doomscrolling. It's primary value proposition to keep me using it wasn't to trick me with addictive content, but to get me high quality answers as…

For me, Sora changed the way I viewed Sam Altman as a person. I really thought he wasn't like the previous generations of tech leaders - as you mentioned OpenAI (with him in charge) seemed to be genuine about making a product that could improve people's lives. He'd go on podcasts and quite convincingly talk about how ChatGPT could prevent real world harm like suicide, and possibly even contribute to helping disease t…

Multiple people have attested that Sam Altman is extremely charming (especially in more casual, intimate settings) and talks very nobly about his goals, but his actual work is just…all kinds of awful. And I think that charm only goes so far as it seems clear that people are starting to demand that OpenAI actually match its words with work it cannot produce.

I think his board fight within OpenAI where essentially lied to the board, his obsession with retinal scanning everyone for his biometric cryptocurrency (Worldcoin), how he left Y Combinator are just evidence that he’s not very heroic. Most cringe to me is that he and many others seem aware that what their are doing is corrosive and harmful to society on some level as Altman has admitted to having a bunker somewhere around Big Sur [0]. Which…WTF.

[0] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-ma...

Re: Goodbye to Sora

#448

Post by heavyset_go »

rogerrogerr wrote: post #370
lotsofpulp wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you feel the same about special effects in professionally produced media?

I was thinking about this while typing. I don’t really care about classically animated content; it’s generally not trying to be indistinguishable from real life and I don’t feel like my brain trains on it. But I think I do have similar feelings about special effects. A difference is that special effects tend to depict scenarios very outside of the envelope of normal experience, so probably not very damaging if my mod…

Media has warped people's mental models of what car wrecks are like at different speeds, being stabbed, being shot, drowning, seizures, falls from different heights, falls into water, giving CPR, when it is/isn't appropriate to give CPR, appropriate responses to natural disasters, etc.

Re: Goodbye to Sora

#449

Post by [deleted] »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #264
iugtmkbdfil834 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really disagree, but the proper way to think about it was that with Sora some of that ability democratized. Now it will be available only to the rich and powerful ( and nerdy ). Humanity may not need it per se, but removal of that option that does not automatically make it better; not if the removal is only for a portion of the population.

Video production is already wildly democratized. AI did not lower the barrier to entry. Digital tools already did most of the legwork.

[deleted]

Re: Goodbye to Sora

#450

Post by SXX »

raincole wrote: post #381
vermilingua wrote: post #271

Good riddence to bad trash. To me, this idea represents the absolute worst of the AI wave (out of a lot to choose from): a corporate controlled endless stream of the feelies to keep people plugged in and scrolling for nobody’s benefit except those in control of the output. If “entertainment” can be produced algorithmically to a volume and level of quality that the masses find attractive, it’s only a matter of time be…

They are not getting rid of Sora because people won't want AI videos lol. They're getting rid of Sora because they're so behind in this realm. AI videos online are mostly made with Chinese models, and the situation has been like this for more than one year. The percentage of AI videos over the internet will certainly not decrease after Sora is gone. The question is when will Chinese coding models have their Seedance…

Its no surprise Chinese models will eventually win in a video generation race since they are far less censored and not affected by crazy copyright system.

It much easier to make Qwen animate tankman than it's to make any western model to generate indigenous people dancing because cough cough naked skin is baaaaad. Except this Musk one that will nonetheless affected by all the copyright mess.

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