Sora 2 breaks the internet

PLUS: Build full-stack AI productivity tools without writing code

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. OpenAI just dropped a video model that might actually break the internet — in more ways than one.

With Sora 2’s incredible physics and realism and a new Cameo feature bringing instant viral potential, the next step up in video generation is here. But once the floodgates open, will this new AI social app break through the noise or just add to the slop?

In today’s AI rundown:

  • OpenAI’s Sora 2 with social video app

  • Periodic Labs’ AI scientist for physical world

  • Build full-stack AI productivity tools without coding

  • Amazon’s new Alexa+ integrated devices

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

Image source: OpenAI

The Rundown: OpenAI just released Sora 2, its latest video model that now includes synchronized audio and dialogue, alongside a new social app where users can create, remix, and insert themselves into AI videos through a "Cameos" feature.

The details:

  • Sora 2 shows huge improvements in physics compared to earlier models, also featuring longer 5-10 second outputs that can handle complex scene changes.

  • The model can also generate matching audio alongside visuals, creating realistic dialogue and sound effects that synchronize across content styles.

  • The new Sora social app centers around ‘Cameos’, a feature that lets users record and use their likeness across AI-generated scenes.

  • The app launches free with usage limits in the U.S. and Canada, with Pro subscribers getting access to a Sora 2 Pro model and API access coming soon.

Why it matters: Model-wise, Sora 2 looks incredible — pushing us even further into the uncanny valley and creating tons of new storytelling capabilities. Cameos feels like a new viral memetic tool, but time will tell whether the AI social app can overcome the slop-factor and have staying power past the initial novelty.

TOGETHER WITH ASAPP

The Rundown: You’ve probably heard the MIT stat circulating that 95% of enterprise AI pilots fail. Want to experience the other 5%? ASAPP’s GenerativeAgent® is an enterprise-grade AI customer service agent you can call today. Purpose-built for complex customer calls & chats, it resolves real issues with speed, safety, and control.

Pick a use case, call in, and experience:

  • Human-like conversations that go beyond simple FAQs

  • Fast, accurate resolutions—the first time

  • Enterprise-grade guardrails that prevent hallucinations

PERIODIC LABS

Image source: Periodic Labs

The Rundown: ChatGPT co-creator Liam Fedus’ new startup, Periodic Labs, just launched, revealing its mission to build AI scientists that learn from physical experiments rather than internet text — with over 20 researchers from top AI labs.

The details:

  • The company is constructing autonomous laboratories where robots will execute thousands of materials science experiments.

  • The labs will generate gigabytes of unique data per trial, with AI systems then analyzing to guide future experimentation.

  • Periodic Labs raised over $300M in funding at a $1B valuation, with initial projects targeting superconductors and chip manufacturing efficiency.

  • The team argues that current LLMs have exhausted the internet's text and can't achieve real discovery without real-world experimentation.

Why it matters: Researchers from OpenAI, Meta, Google DeepMind, and other labs turned down serious cash to join Periodic Labs, with a worthy goal of accelerating science across the board. This vision shows the other side of the AI coin — some see the content slop, others see the visionary opportunity for world-changing discovery.

AI TRAINING

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to build AI-powered productivity apps using Lovable — a platform that handles UI, backend, database, and AI integration through simple prompts with no coding required.

Step-by-step:

  1. Go to lovable.dev, sign up (5 free credits/day), and then prompt: "Build a task tracking app called TaskPrioritizer with a form for task name and description, display tasks as cards with checkboxes, and store in a database"

  2. Add AI integration by prompting: "Add AI using Gemini to automatically prioritize tasks as low/medium/high based on urgency keywords like 'ASAP' or 'today', show colored badges, and include a sort button"

  3. Enable authentication with: "Add user accounts with signup/login so people can save their own tasks privately. Each user only sees their own tasks"

  4. Test your app by creating tasks with different urgency levels, then click "Publish" in the top right to get a live URL

Pro tip: Use Claude or ChatGPT to draft a product spec before building — describe your idea and ask for a requirements doc to help you think through features upfront.

PRESENTED BY K2 THINK

The Rundown: K2 Think isn’t just another model release, it’s fully open source with training data, parameter weights, and deployment code all accessible — ensuring reproducibility and accelerating global collaboration. From labs to startups, K2 Think gives AI builders a transparent, high-performance reasoning system to trust and extend.

K2 Think’s upgrades include:

  • Performance at just 32B parameters that rivals 600B+ reasoning LLMs

  • Chain-of-thought depth and test-time scaling

  • Optimized for Cerebras wafer-scale inference

AMAZON

Image source: Amazon

The Rundown: Amazon just unveiled a series of new devices designed specifically for its new AI-infused Alexa+, including new Echo home systems, Ring cameras, Fire TVs, Kindle readers, and more.

The details:

  • Alexa+ can now handle more natural conversations, book reservations, control smart homes, and complete complex web tasks autonomously.

  • New Echo devices feature custom chips to process AI requests on-device, with improved voice detection sensors to recognize people and environments.

  • Ring AI upgrades include Alexa+ Greetings for a personal AI door attendant, Familiar Faces for people recognition, and Search Party for finding lost pets.

  • Kindles gain AI-powered notetaking, with Fire TVs getting Alexa+ guidance for movie recs and info, more intelligent search, and broader home integrations.

Why it matters: Alexa+ is heading across Amazon’s product line, with some practical and useful integrations — but nothing that feels truly next level in a space where things are moving a mile a minute. With Apple still in AI limbo, Amazon’s moves are a small step forward… But hardware still feels like it is waiting for a true breakout AI integration.

QUICK HITS

  • 🎥 Sora 2 - OpenAI’s new SOTA video generation model

  • 💼 Agent Mode - Microsoft’s ‘vibe working’ capabilities in Office apps

  • 💭 Imagine with Claude - Generate UI and apps on the fly with Claude

  • ⚙️ Essential - Nothing’s ‘digital playground’ to create apps with text prompts

Agentic Memory & Context Engineering Hackathon, SF, Oct. 11 — Push the boundaries of what you can build with MongoDB’s Atlas Vector Search and Voyage AI embeddings. Register now.*

Elon Musk revealed that xAI is building ‘Grokipedia’, which will be a “massive improvement” over Wikipedia and a step towards “understanding the universe.”

Microsoft introduced Agent Mode in Excel and Word, along with Office Agent in Copilot, enabling the creation of spreadsheets, docs, and presentations with text.

Opera launched Neon, a new AI-powered browser that can take agentic actions on a user’s behalf, released as a premium subscription via waitlist.

Meta acquired chip startup Rivos, seeking to accelerate the company’s internal AI chip development and reduce reliance on Nvidia.

OpenAI reportedly generated $4.3B in revenue during the first half of 2025, but also burned $2.5B on research and compute costs, according to The Information.

*Sponsored Listing

COMMUNITY

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Christopher J. in West Hollywood, CA:

"I use AI as a full-fledged personal health team. I gather results from my physical exams and make prompts to break things down so that a senior in high school could understand them. Then I ask for dietary recommendations to support my longevity, anti-inflammation, and brain health. Based on this, I prompt for specific dietary instructions, including meal plans, shopping lists, and recipes. I then give a list of the markets nearest to me for a specific shopping list with sizes and prices.”

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

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Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown

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