Before we get into it, a quick note. The whole Slow team will be in NYC next week for our AGM (aka the big annual meeting with our investors). Lots of people to see / hang with so if you’re free Wednesday morning, come have bagels and coffee with us. RSVP here so we know how big of an order to place with Apollo.

Last week, OpenAI launched Sora 2, its new social app that lets users create AI generated clips from text prompts or transform their own videos with AI effects. The response was overwhelming. The app hit 1M downloads in less than 5 days, which beat ChatGPT’s record, despite it being code-gated and only available in North America. A few days after launch, Mr. Beast, the world’s biggest creator, was predictably apocalyptic — calling AI a threat to YouTubers’ livelihoods.

I agree, but only partially. For the sugar water, entertainment-focused creators, he’s right. This probably means bad news. For others, I am less concerned. Let me explain.

I first got access to Sora 2 an hour or so after launch. Part of the thrill was being on the social app so early. As dumb as it sounds, I felt cool being an early (sub-20!) follower of big names — and discovering which of my friends were also playing around with the app was like a treasure hunt. The novelty of seeing my (very realistic) face in front of Judge Judy with dancing lobsters was hilarious. The experience was fun, joyful, weird, and silly.

After the initial thrill of exclusivity and ridiculous video prompts, I found myself using it almost entirely for creation, not for distribution or even really consumption. In fact, the number of videos I shared and watched off-app was more than I shared or watched on the app itself. And after a few days, I kind of got bored.

Now I may not be the target consumer so take my perspective with a grain of salt, but there was nothing about the experience that retained me. The dream-like nature of the content was funny, at best, but quickly grew stale and I found myself back on Instagram and YouTube excited to catch up on what my friends and favorite creators were posting (outfit styling for a trip to London, newly launched ear seeds as a TCM practice, and a recap of a secret wedding!). This is not to say Sora or other AI video generators aren’t valuable, though. I think they will dominate entertainment-y type content, or “slop” as the kids would say. Playing this forward, the models are going to get so good and the algorithm so tuned that you’ll be served entertaining content that is precisely your humor and your vibe — but you likely won’t care about the creator/prompter behind it or the fact that it’s 100% AI. Herein lies the real risk for creators.

We’ve already seen a glimpse of this future with TikTok where the barrier to creation dropped and the feed turned algorithmic. I imagine a similar dynamic will follow suit but with AI generated or altered content. We are bound to get millions (billions?) of “creators,” if you can call them that, and the algorithm will make it such that people consume without any real attachment to the poster themself. Unless the creator’s community cares about them for a very specific and durable reason, they will be as ephemeral as the next million hot, funny, bombastic creators savvy enough to prompt. There is no moat in this.

As scary as this for the industry, I think the story is vastly different for creators with deep community, which naturally occurs in specific areas around niche interests, experiences, education, or curation (which I’d probably define as taste-making and discovery). For these creators, trust with their audience is paramount. Part of the beauty of this relationship is that they connect with their community on something so narrow — a perspective, an identity, a sensibility — that it’s probably pretty hard to replicate with AI, which by definition is trained on the mass corpus of human output on the web. These creators aren't just making content; they're building worlds with an extremely distinct point of view.

As somewhat of a parallel: last week OpenAI also announced instant checkout in ChatGPT, launching with partners like Etsy and Shopify. I’m sure brands and fashion creators alike felt a similar chill to Mr. Beast. But again, we’ve sort of seen this story before — namely, with Amazon.

It’s indisputable that Amazon changed shopping forever. The selection, convenience, pricing, and and transaction ease are unmatched. But those attributes are helpful for a certain type of product and for one part of the shopping journey. For items that are either 1) low consideration and/or repeat purchases (phone chargers, paper towels) or 2) so specific but you don’t know or care who sells it (really long-tail products), these innovations are great. AI can whittle down mass selection or surface a specific product efficiently.

But so much of commerce, especially in categories like fashion, home, baby, beauty, etc, is about discovery, inspiration, curation, and co-signal. You don't just want the item; you want to understand how to wear it, where it fits in your life, how it travels or functions. You want someone with taste you trust to show you what's worth your attention and money. This is why Amazon has struggled with luxury fashion and has built a massive creator business. In these categories, the actual buying is the least important part of the experience.

So this is all to say: with these insane leaps in AI, creators are most definitely at risk — but the ones with deep trust and specific audience attachment might actually end up as beneficiaries. Creation will get easier, but community retention will get harder. The flood of AI-generated content will make authentic human connection more valuable by contrast, not less.

Creators should know why their audience shows up for them and nurture that, both on and off platforms. For creators whose only value is in being entertaining or algorithmic, they might be in trouble. If their value is denominated in specific expertise, perspective, taste, or experience — they have the opportunity to build a real moat.

h/t to Sam Lessin for the title inspiration.

See everyone in NYC!

— Megan