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There's a lot to be said about Sorawhich is essentially OpenAI's TikTok for AI scum. But putting aside my concerns about what seems to be glorified deepfake machineIt's obvious that the app is popular. OpenAI says Sora Reaches One Million Downloads in Less Than Five Dayslikely driven by users' interest in hyper-realistic videos going viral on social media.
But with great hype comes great risk of fraud. While OpenAI made Sora free to download, the app was initially available by invitation only, causing a wait for only those users who wanted to download it. So these users could open the App Store, search for Sora, and download the first app that becomes available, especially if they can start using it right away. This is exactly what happened in this case.
As reported by TechCrunchSince the launch of the real OpenAI app, more than a dozen fake Sora apps have appeared on the iOS App Store. These applications were called either “Sora” or “Sora 2”, the latter referring to the specific video model underlying these hyper-realistic generations of AI.
It can be assumed that developers rushed to upload these apps to the App Store in an attempt to lure traffic away from users interested in Sora. And while that's true, some of these apps were already available on the App Store long before OpenAI announced the Sora app—some of them operating under different names. It's unclear how many of them changed their names in this situation, but it's clear that many changed their names shortly after Sora launched. TechCrunch reports that some apps have been available on the App Store since earlier this year, while others have been available since last year.
Apple's App Store isn't the only app market to suffer. You can also find fraudulent Sora apps on the Google Play Store. Collectively, these apps have been downloaded over 300,000 times, with over 80,000 of those downloads occurring since Sora's official launch. Arguably the most successful fake Sora app, “Sora 2 – AI Video Generator”, has been downloaded over 50,000 times since OpenAI released Sora alone. TechCrunch reports that these apps collectively earned more than $160,000, all from apps purporting to be something entirely different.
Most, but not all, of these apps have now been removed from the app stores.
How to spot fake apps in your app store
First of all, if the app you are trying to download is trendy and popular, like Sora, assume that the developers will try to spoof it. Attackers want to trick users looking for one app into downloading theirs, whether that means installing malware on your device, stealing your information, or making money off of you by showing you ads. If they know that a million people will download the app, hosting a scam app will generate good business.
What are your thoughts so far?
When browsing the app store results page, pay close attention to the app name. Sure, the title might have the word “Sora” in it, but are there any weird, extraneous words in it? “Sora 2 – AI Video Generator” isn't the worst fake name I've ever seen, but the name of the app is Sora, not Sora 2. OpenAI also probably won't add AI Video Generator to their product name: they probably know the product speaks for itself and won't feel the need to clutter the name with extras details. Instead, the real name is “Sora by OpenAI,” likely intended to distinguish itself from legitimate apps named Sora, as well as to indicate that it was indeed created by OpenAI.
Speaking of which, you should always make sure that the app in question is distributed by the company that created it. If you're trying to figure out which Sora app in your app store is the real one, it will be the one that says it was created by OpenAI. I'm not just talking about the name. Click on the app and look at the developer's name under the title. If it doesn't match the exact company you know is developing the app, don't download it.
You'll also want to check out the copy and images promoting the app here. Is everything written well, without spelling or grammatical errors? Are the images high quality and reflective of the app being advertised? Don't upload anything that seems thrown together: some scammers don't pay attention to small details.
Finally, make sure that the app in question is actually available on the platform you're using. Sora is currently only available for iOS, which means that any app claiming to be OpenAI's Sora on the Play Store is a scam. If you're using Android, you'll just have to wait for OpenAI to create an app for your platform.
