How Sora Works (and What It Means), How to Find Your Next Big Idea Hiding on the Internet, and More

Hello, and happy Sunday! 

ICYMI, you can listen to Evan’s latest essay if you prefer audio to text. Like and subscribe to Every on Spotify so you can get our essays in your feed, and let us know what you think in the comments.

Now, on to everything we published this week, along with our take on the latest tech and business news.

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Our stories

“How Sora Works (And What It Means)” by Dan Shipper/Chain of Thought: Sora is a new model from OpenAI that can make 60-seconds videos that, when prompted well, are indistinguishable from reality. Frightening? Exciting? Yes. Dan writes about not just the implications of the technology (are we all George Lucas now?) but also how it works. Read this if you want to be reminded of why you pay for Every—timely, accurate analysis that you can’t get anywhere else. 

🎧 “How to Find Your Next Big Idea Hiding on the Internet” by Dan Shipper/Chain of Thought: The internet is a stormy, white-capped sea, awash with data and signals. In this episode of How Do You Use ChatGPT? guest Steph Smith—a16z podcast host, author, and the creator of Internet Pipes—discusses how she uses AI to navigate the online world. Dan and Steph then vet two business ideas live on the show using various tools. Watch this if you are on the hunt for your next big idea and want to use AI to help find it. 🔏Paid subscribers have exclusive access to the transcript of this episode.

“Autonomous Vehicles Have a Problem of Narrative” by Evan Armstrong/Napkin Math: A crowd of arsonists recently burned a Waymo autonomous vehicle down to its frame, and public perception of tech is at an all-time low. How did it come to this? How did the industry of the future lose the trust of the present? In this piece, Evan uses the history of autonomous vehicles to better understand this loss of trust and, most importantly, offers solutions on what we can do about it. Read this if you want to learn more about tech’s role in America. 

“How to Use Twitter” by Nabeel Qureshi: X is a smidge like cocaine—almost certainly harmful to your health, but if used correctly, it can accelerate your career (see Wall Street in the 1980s). Nabeel Qureshi is one of those addicts who uses his habit for good. He has used the platform to improve his career, learning, and happiness. Read this article if you want tips on transforming your X habit into something useful, with practical tips on topics like search functionality and feed cultivation.