Last fall, Sam Altman unveiled Sora 2 (also known as Sora AI), a “ChatGPT for Creativity” designed to help creators transform their videos and art using AI. Since its launch, a growing number of creators have become captivated with using the app for a specific purpose: making Star Trek parody videos, and even building entirely new fictional universes.
Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, wrote in a blog post in fall 2026 that Sora would give people the ability to create videos and images, collaborate with friends and followers, and even insert themselves into the worlds they create. Early beta adopters have described the app as feeling “open and intuitive.”
Star Trek and the Expanded Universe by Its Creators
Star Trek has inspired numerous spin-offs and parodies over the decades, including Saturday Night Live skits like “The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise,” as well as TV shows like Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville, an optimistic sci-fi space adventure with Family Guy-style humor.
Now, Sora AI creators are building off-world settings that closely resemble Star Trek, with some viewers occasionally mistaking the AI-generated videos for official productions.
Right off the heels of Star Trek’s new series, “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy,” backlash from right-wing critics called the new series “Woke,” but the series creators defend themselves.
One Sora AI creator named Danny Hampton (who operates under the handle @DannyHampton87 on Sora AI) created the Star Fleet Sector 41 Series on his channel and has focused on adding other Sora AI creators to his universe. The Debrief reached out to Hampton to hear his thoughts on the app and why he created his Star Trek expanded universe.
“I like Sora because it lets you be more creative and free-minded,” Hampton said. “I have always loved Star Trek, and I love the uniforms, but I had to customize the uniform for a different part of Starfleet. That’s how I created Sector 41.”
He says the viewer response has been overwhelming. “The response from people is crazy. The series does not have an end to it—my mind continuously comes up with more and more ideas.”
Hampton believes AI can be a powerful creative tool, though not without challenges. “I’ve had a hard time creating these Star Trek videos because of all the restrictions and guardrails the Sora app imposes. But a great mind never gives up—that’s why Star Trek Sector 41 is a big hit on this app.”
The Reviews Are In
Even with Star Trek fans creating their own universe, since the app’s launch, there has been some online backlash about the ethics of using AI to create art, along with environmental and social concerns, and general complaints about the quality of the material Sora produces.
One Reddit user said that, “ChatGPT actually produces a pretty reasonable … but Sora ends up spitting out an image that makes it look like you’re seeing their stunt doubles instead.” Another Sora user wrote on Reddit that “It started as a 10/10 app, and now it’s barely 3/10.”
Not everyone has been so critical, though. “I recently tried SORA, and I was highly impressed, so I thought of sharing my experience here,” another Reddit user wrote. “With just one prompt, I asked SORA to generate a stunningly hyper‑realistic, fun 10‑second video.”
Whether AI-generated work truly qualifies as art remains a matter of debate. The tech and creative communities last year witnessed a court case at the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, focusing on the Copyright Office’s ruling that Stephen Thaler’s AI software could not be considered art or an author. The judge noted that copyright law “requires all work to be authored in the first instance by a human being.”
Ironically, the ruling in question referenced Data, the iconic android character who appears in the Star Trek universe, in portions discussing machine creativity.
“Science fiction is replete with examples of creative machines that far exceed the capacities of current generative artificial intelligence. For example, Star Trek’s Data might be worse than ChatGPT at writing poetry, but Data’s intelligence is comparable to that of a human being.”
Some networks are cautiously exploring AI-generated content, while others, such as Disney, are reportedly making deals with OpenAI to allow their characters to appear in Sora-generated videos in controlled, licensed ways.
In some cases, this can serve as a marketing strategy to keep major franchises top of mind. It also reflects the reality that creators will continue producing extended universes, parodies, and alternative storylines. Still, questions remain about whether studios might acquire intellectual property from AI-assisted creators and adapt it for film and television.
“Copyright ties authorship to human creative input, which means purely machine-generated works still face real limits to protection,” said Daryl Lim, the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law at Penn State Dickinson Law, in an email to The Debrief, adding that “[the] system is quite comfortable with the licensing, acquisition, and incorporation of works that rights holders did not themselves create.”
Lim said studios can legally use AI-assisted content as long as it does not infringe on existing intellectual property and includes enough human creative input to qualify for protection, adding that the future of AI media will likely involve expanded licensing agreements, clearer credit standards, and stricter oversight rather than a breakdown of copyright law.
“What we’re likely to see is not the collapse of copyright, but more negotiated licensing, clearer attribution norms, and closer scrutiny of how these works are produced, especially as AI-generated content starts to feel less novel and more infrastructural,” Lim said.
Environmental Concerns
Still, a larger debate remains ongoing among environmentalists regarding how much water and overall energy consumption AI data centers actually require.
“Every Sora AI video burns 1 kilowatt‑hour and emits 466 grams of carbon… and for what exactly?” wrote Alistair Alexander, a Berlin-based researcher and educator focusing on the social and ecological impacts of technology, in a posting on LinkedIn.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo and the Georgia Institute of Technology examined AI adoption rates and their potential environmental impacts, finding that while AI uses significant energy, its overall contribution to national or global emissions remains relatively small.
“It is important to note that the increase in energy use is not going to be uniform,” said Dr. Juan Moreno-Cruz in a statement. “It’s going to be felt more in the places where electricity is produced to power the data centres. If you look at that energy from the local perspective, that’s a big deal because some places could see double the amount of electricity output and emissions.”
“But at a larger scale, AI’s use of energy won’t be noticeable,” Moreno-Cruz added.
Reviews of Sora AI have been mixed, with some praising its creative potential and ease of use, while others criticize not only its environmental footprint, but also its propensity for glitches and the inclusion of odd imagery.
Despite ongoing questions about AI’s influence on creativity, culture, and the environment, Star Trek fans are already using tools like Sora to shape their own versions of the future. In doing so, they extend a tradition of imaginative exploration long associated with the franchise: live long and prosper.
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com. To contact Chrissy with a story, please email chrissy @ thedebrief.org.