Who is asking for AI generated cat videos?

Hint: it’s not creators. And it’s not audiences.

Silicon Valley luminaries just love the notion of “democratising” access to something, don’t they? When Mark Zuckerberg spoke about Facebook’s early motto to “make the world more open and connected,” democratised access to information and communication was at the heart of his vision. When Google executives talk about bringing internet access to remote villages via balloon or making smartphone cameras able to detect disease, they use the frame of democratisation to situate these efforts as societally beneficial. When crypto came calling, the promise was democratising finance. Never mind that crypto’s greatest success has simply been further enriching the already wealthy.

There is no doubt — equal and widespread access to tools that can educate, connect, or empower is a laudable goal. One that’s hard to argue against at face value. But it’s also a goal that should prompt more scrutiny rather than less. Because far too often, rhetorical slogans around technology’s capability to “democratise” obscure the downsides, limitations, and sometimes outright harms that emerge from these very tools.

The debut of OpenAI’s Sora model, that unlocks text to video generative AI, is a prime example. The demo videos have created a fever pitch of excitement about the democratisation of video. But here’s the rub. Democratising video has already been a salient achievement of the digital era. Today, anyone with a smartphone can potentially reach global audiences, thanks to accessible tools for production and distribution. This revolution has reshaped personal expression and enabled storytelling without expensive equipment or formal training.

Sora goes beyond democratisation, toward automation, minimising human involvement in a dynamic, collaborative art form. While the results evoke awe, the cultural costs of innovation and brutally cheaper production are typical of the collateral damage that always seems to be swept under the rug when futurists and TED…