OpenAI's Sora 2 Pro Praised for Performance, Criticized for "Awkward" Interface

Ethan Mollick, a prominent AI expert, has lauded OpenAI's recently updated Sora 2 Pro for its impressive capabilities in his tests, while simultaneously highlighting significant usability challenges. Mollick described the current user experience as "awkward," likening it to "a storyboard maker shoved inside a video creation tool shoved inside of a drafts folder of a social media app." This assessment comes shortly after OpenAI rolled out key enhancements to its flagship AI video generation model.

OpenAI officially unveiled Sora 2 on September 30, 2025, alongside a new iOS application designed as a social platform for AI-generated content. Recent updates on October 16, 2025, further expanded its functionality, allowing all users to generate videos up to 15 seconds, while Pro subscribers can create videos up to 25 seconds. Pro users also gained access to a new "Storyboard" tool, enabling the assembly of multiple clips into more complex narratives.

Mollick's critique points to the integration of these powerful features within a potentially convoluted framework. The "Storyboard" tool, intended to enhance creative control, appears to be nested within layers of other functionalities, creating a less intuitive workflow for users. Sora 2 Pro, a premium offering for ChatGPT Pro subscribers, is accessible via sora.com and is slated for full integration into the Sora app.

The Sora app itself is positioned as a social media platform, drawing comparisons to TikTok, where users can create and share AI-generated videos. This approach aims to foster a community around AI content creation, but the multi-layered interface described by Mollick suggests a potential hurdle for seamless user adoption. OpenAI's strategy involves merging cutting-edge video synthesis with social features, intensifying the competitive landscape against rivals like Meta's Vibes and Google's Veo.

Despite the interface concerns, the underlying technology of Sora 2 Pro continues to impress with its advancements in realism, physics accuracy, and synchronized audio. The company's iterative deployment focuses on balancing creative potential with safety, including content moderation and identity safeguards for features like "Cameos." The feedback from experts like Mollick underscores the ongoing challenge of translating powerful AI models into user-friendly applications.