Sora AI is an app that allows anyone to make AI generated videos for completely free. With Sora being such an accessible platform with a handful of useful tools, it’s causing AI videos to be spread all over social media. This is leading the younger, more online generation to fall victim to its consequences.
“If I wanted to make you believe that chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla ice cream, I can build content,” Dustin York, Associate Professor of Communication College of Arts and Sciences, said. “After a month of seeing 40, 50, 60 of these news outlets, you’re going to start believing that’s real. When you start seeing 50 fake news organizations all say chocolate is great, you are going to start believing that chocolate will make you live longer. I think that’s the big issue for high school students.”
It can be incredibly easy to change someone’s opinion about something. People may currently be able to tell the difference between AI and real videos, but many feel that won’t be forever. According to ML-science, AI is evolving at an exponential rate, and Sora AI, an upcoming platform commonly used to generate AI videos, could one day be used to make anything that anyone wants.
“If you wanted to make your own show, your own superhero thing, your own alien thing, you can make it from your living room,” York said.
Pretty soon, AI could get so advanced to the point where entire movies could be created. However, AI isn’t just evolving in video production alone. According to Forbes, AI is becoming more intelligent and realistic. According to IE insights, as AI advances, so does the bond some people feel between themselves and the screen.
“High schoolers are at the point where they’re becoming less and less engaged in romantic relationships and leaning more into these AI companions, therefore more loneliness, right? Getting out less, having less connections with humans,” York said.
The issues with AI videos and AI companions is that now, AI videos could be made of that fake companion, causing some to be more immersed in this fantasy since they can watch a video of that fake companion. Since they are more immersed in the fantasy they grow up but have no idea how to interact with other people, and as Dustin York said, it causes more loneliness. But AI can sometimes be good for people.
“If you own an HVAC company, with AI videos, you’re gonna be able to create ads, commercials content, for basically free,” York said.
Using AI in this way can help small businesses thrive among all the big corporations that have money to do whatever they want. So, family businesses that don’t have the budget to make an ad have trouble getting people to know about their businesses, but with AI, all that’s needed is a picture and a prompt. Although AI can be helpful in many ways, according to Education Week, AI videos and deepfakes can pose a threat to students.
“I think the biggest issue with AI videos being so easy to make is the fact that you can give a prompt and picture of a face for example, and it could generate a video of someone doing something they never actually did,” junior Payton Counsell said.
