Sora hits 1 million downloads quicker than Chat GPT, AI ‘slop’ dominates app

OpenAI says the latest version of its text-to-video artificial intelligence (AI) tool Sora was downloaded over a million times in less than five days – hitting the milestone faster than ChatGPT did at launch. The app, which has topped the Apple App Store charts in the US, generates ten second long realistic-looking videos from simple text prompts. The figures were announced in an X post from Sora boss Bill Peebles, external, who said the “surging growth” came even though the app was only available to people in North America who had received an invite. BBC 

“I hope Nintendo doesn’t sue us,” says Sam Altman as he appears on OpenAI’s new Sora app in a virtual field full of Pokémon. Bizarre and lifelike in equal measure, the AI clip was just one example of the videos on the company’s new TikTok-style platform. Released in the US last month, Sora is an AI video-creating app that has been catapulted to the top of download charts as users scramble to see how far they can push OpenAI’s creative guardrails. Telegraph 

Jaguar Land Rover appears to have been targeted by hackers more than a year before the cyber attack in August that forced the carmaker to halt production, as investigators consider whether a state-backed actor or organised crime group was behind the hack. Few details have emerged from the investigation, led by the National Crime Agency, into the attack that has devastated JLR’s supply chain and triggered a £1.5bn state-backed loan for the UK carmaker owned by India’s Tata Motors. FT.com

An Irish start-up is hoping to have the UK’s first food drone delivery pilot scheme operating in 2026, subject to regulatory approval. With a fleet of specially designed 23kg quadcopters, Manna Aero has carried out more than 200,000 food delivery flights in west Dublin, Espoo in Finland and Texas. As the company aims to expand, its CEO Bobby Healy said the UK “would be our most important market in Europe. It’s by far the biggest delivery market today. Sky News 

The fourth-generation Renault Twingo E-Tech will be revealed on 6 November – and UK buyers will be able to order models from mid-October. The new, sub-£17,000 entry point to Renault’s expanding EV line-up will hit the roads in 2026 as a direct rival to the upcoming Volkswagen ID 1. It will be positioned beneath the Renault 5 and Renault 4 in the brand’s growing line-up of small EVs and has been developed in less than two years. Yahoo!

A prominent anti-DEI campaigner appointed by Meta in August as an adviser on AI bias has spent the weeks since his appointment spreading disinformation about shootings, transgender people, vaccines, crime, and protests. Robby Starbuck, 36, of Nashville, was appointed in August as an adviser by Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other tech platforms – in an August lawsuit settlement. Guardian 

People familiar with the matter have told AppleInsider that a Mac with the identifier J704 is nearing release. Apple has been testing this model with a dedicated hardware-focused variant of macOS Tahoe, version 26.0.2. Other Mac models remain in the works, but they are not expected to launch just yet.  Based on the identifier J704, Apple appears to be gearing up for the debut of the base model M5 MacBook Pro. For reference, the preceding model, with the standard M4 chip, is known as the J604. AppleInsiderr