OpenAI makes Sora 2 social with reusable characters and leaderboards

Personalized video creation took a decisive step forward as OpenAI introduced Sora 2, positioning its generator as a place for reusable characters, multi-scene storytelling, and community discovery.

At the heart of the release is a feature called character cameos that turns almost any image, including people, pets, drawings, or toys, into a reusable avatar, and Sora 2 lets creators manage each identity with privacy choices such as private, share with friends, or fully public.

The tool extends an earlier version that let users generate likenesses of themselves for videos, and Sora 2 now raises sharper questions about verifying whether uploaded images depict real or fictional people amid ongoing debates over the ethical use of synthetic likenesses.

To support longer narratives, Sora 2 adds a stitching function that combines short clips into multi-scene sequences inside the app.

Community features are also front and center as Sora 2 introduces leaderboards that surface the most remixed videos and the most popular cameo characters, a design meant to fuel creativity and keep audiences coming back.

The release arrives amid a naming dispute after Cameo filed a trademark infringement lawsuit over OpenAI’s use of the term cameo in the product, making Sora 2 a test case for how branding choices collide with rapid feature launches.

The broader market is tightening as Runway, Pika, and Synthesia compete for creators’ attention, and Sora 2 differentiates itself by blending video generation with social discovery and reusable identities.

From an investment perspective, platforms that combine creation tools with community signals tend to attract interest, and Sora 2 aligns with a push toward products that can build network effects around recurring characters.