OpenAI launches TikTok for AI slop as employees revolt

OpenAI launches Sora 2: TikTok for AI-generated videos where you can deepfake friends. Employees revolt, one quits saying "joined to cure cancer, not build slop machines.

OpenAI just released Sora 2, their video generation model that can put you and your friends into any AI-generated scene. But it's not just a model—it's a full TikTok-style social app designed to get you hooked on AI-generated content. The backlash is brutal, with employees quitting and the internet declaring war on what they're calling an "infinite slop machine."

Sam Altman called it "the ChatGPT moment for creativity." The internet called it brain cancer. One OpenAI employee who joined to cure diseases just quit to build AI for science instead, tweeting: "If you don't want to build the infinite AI TikTok slop machine, come join us at Periodic Labs."

The infinite slop machine is here

Sora 2 isn't just better physics and sound effects. It's a complete social media platform where you upload a video of yourself, authorize friends to use your likeness, and suddenly everyone's deepfaking everyone into AI videos. OpenAI calls this revolutionary feature "Cameos"—you record yourself saying numbers and tilting your head, then anyone you've authorized can generate videos with your face doing anything.

The technical achievements are undeniable. Sora 2 handles Olympic gymnastics routines, accurate water physics with paddleboards, and doesn't teleport basketballs into hoops when players miss shots. It maintains character consistency across multiple people in scenes, something even Google's Veo couldn't manage. The model comes with realistic, cinematic, and anime styles, plus synchronized dialogue and sound effects that actually match the action.

Peter Levels admitted the superiority: "Before today, the best AI video models were dominated by Chinese companies and Google. But none had character consistency, let alone multiple characters in one scene. OpenAI solved that by rethinking ownership with Cameo—essentially training yourself as an AI model."

Early adopters are already creating cursed content. One viral video shows CCTV footage of Sam Altman stealing GPUs at Target. Another perfectly recreates Spotify playing copyrighted music, prompting immediate copyright concerns. The top posts include Ronald McDonald making out with Wendy, documentaries about famous memes, and "the dumbest thing you could possibly imagine"—a guy on a skateboard on a treadmill holding a leaf blower.

But here's what OpenAI desperately wants you to see: they claim they're not optimizing for time spent in feed. They interrupt scrolling every 5-10 videos to ask how you're feeling (spawning thousands of memes of Altman's face asking "HOW DO YOU FEEL?"). They say they're maximizing creation, not consumption, with natural language recommendation algorithms and content "heavily biased" toward people you follow.

Why OpenAI employees are quitting in disgust

The internal revolt at OpenAI is real. Employees who joined to "cure all diseases" are watching their company build what critics call a dopamine addiction machine. Ed Newton Rex tweeted: "If you're feeling depressed about Sora 2, imagine how OpenAI employees who joined to cure all diseases are feeling."

Matt Sharma predicts: "Would not be surprised if we see a big wave of OpenAI departures in the next month or two. If you signed up to cure cancer and you just secured post-economic bags in a secondary, I don't think you'd be very motivated to work on the slop machine."

Rowan Cheng already quit, launching Periodic Labs with this announcement: "Today you will be presented two visions of humanity's future with AI. If you don't want to build the infinite AI TikTok slop machine, but want to develop AI that accelerates fundamental science, come join us." His new company builds AI scientists and autonomous laboratories to discover things like high-temperature superconductors—actual world-changing technology instead of meme generators.

Even employees staying are conflicted. Liam from OpenAI admitted: "This was initially a tough decision. As a skeptic of short-form video and entertainment at scale, I held many reservations about working on this product for fear that consumer GenAI inevitably leads to engagement baiting, attention slop." He only stayed after convincing himself the team could create "a truly pro-social experience"—though he admits it's "nowhere close to perfect."

The company's own blog post reveals the desperation to justify this. They dedicated an entire section to "launching responsibly" and created a "Sora feed philosophy" with principles like "optimize for creativity" and "balance safety and freedom." Sam Altman himself wrote about feeling "trepidation" and being "aware of how addictive a service like this could become."

The brain rot rebellion begins

The reaction split violently across platforms. Twitter erupted in fury, LinkedIn showed cautious optimism (63% called it "creativity explosion" vs 37% "brain rot machine"), and everyone questioned why OpenAI abandoned curing cancer for this.

Notion founder Simon Last captured the rage: "Why do we keep dedicating our brightest minds, billions of dollars, and the most powerful GPUs on earth to building yet another app that optimizes for attention decay? I was hopeful when ChatGPT seemed to reclaim time from TikTok. But now we see disposable video, same engagement treadmill, path to ads."

The criticism cuts deeper than just another social app. This represents AI inheriting 30 years of digital media failures. A Pew study found 48% of teens say social media harms people their age, up from 32% in 2022. Parents are organizing "Wait Until 8th" movements to collectively delay giving kids smartphones. Into this environment, OpenAI drops an AI video app explicitly designed to be addictive.

Critics see deliberate evil. "OpenAI is building technology that will displace millions of workers while simultaneously creating the AI slop trough humans will consume to fill the void," wrote one fintech account. Another: "We were promised AGI, ASI, personal super intelligence. Instead we get infinite slot machines that turn us into dopamine-addicted zombies."

The copyright implications are terrifying. One Sora video perfectly recreated copyrighted music playing on Spotify. Another generated fake CCTV footage of people committing crimes. The platform allows anyone to generate videos of authorized friends doing anything—the deepfake nightmare realized with corporate blessing.

Even AI industry insiders are disgusted. Dei Nicolau from Wondercraft responded to OpenAI staff: "Sorry, but how exactly are you making the world a better place? Your post is nice and eloquent, but the core message is 'slop is fun, we made it easy to build on each other's slop, so more slop.'"

The financial motive is obvious. As Signal writes: "Unfortunately, ads fund research. Google ads lead to DeepMind. Meta ads lead to AR/VR. OpenAI ads lead to possible AGI." They need the advertising revenue that only social media addiction can provide. Some estimate they'll need TikTok's $10 billion annual marketing budget just to compete.

OpenAI bet everything that people want infinite AI-generated videos of themselves and friends doing impossible things. The internet is betting they just created the perfect symbol of everything wrong with both AI and social media—an infinite slop machine that turns human creativity into algorithmic addiction while the same company claims to be building AGI.

The battle lines are drawn. OpenAI says this funds the path to AGI. Critics say it's the path to idiocracy. Both might be right.