Two Big AI Drops This Week

Sora mass produces slop, Sonnet gets sharper, and Codex sneaks in screenshots previews.

Author

Edgar San Martin
October 03, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

From Edgar,
Welcome to A Vibe Coder, my newsletter where I upload my thoughts on current tech trends, experiements, and vibe coding best practices.

Shilling Myself

AI Game Engine to build your dream 2D and 3D game. Pre-YC Funded (;

  • Pre-Order: Discounted month of AI usage. Base engine will be free, but your support helps.

Lint modern web APIs for cross-browser safety, via GitHub Action and CLI.

  • Easy Setup: Just run npm -D i base-lint && npx base-lint init

Sora videos: too good, maybe too fast

Video generation has been moving in a straight line: from “cute demos” to “uncanny realism.” Sora’s latest clips cross that threshold. They’re shockingly good. That realism makes people desperate for invitation codes but it also makes me pause. The output is addictive, but a lot of it feels like pure slop: AI mashing together tropes, copying voices without permission, producing videos that sit in that legal gray zone. It’s both impressive and unsettling. Reality can be whatever a bad actor makes it. The technology is running ahead of the conversation about what we’ll actually use it for.

It’s rough out there for everyone, even Sam.

@gptpie

Getting caught #sora2 #chiuahua

Free my chihuahua, he didn’t do anything wrong!

4.5 feels sharper

Sonnet 4.5 launched on September 29, 2025. I didn’t know until later in the day and it feels almost uderstated. 4.5 is not a giant leap, but the responses feel tighter, less like an eager junior starting out and more like one who’s about to get that promotion. And the cost? Didn’t spike the way you’d expect. It’s actually equal to Sonnet 4.0’s costs. Usually, every new model comes and it’s previous version will start to see a price drop. This time, Sonnet 4.0 and 4.5 cost the same, almost making 4.5 a no brainer if you want the latest Anthropic model. I have to spend more time with Sonnet 4.5 to see if there are any substantial differences but it’s done well in the few tasks I’ve given it.

Codex does screenshots now

I might be late to this feature, but it still surprised me: Codex can generate web preview screenshots when you’re doing UI changes. You describe a frontend tweak, and instead of just giving you code, it shows you what the change looks like. That’s a small feature with big consequences. Honestly, despite being a small feature it did feel magical the first time Codex gave me a screenshot of the UI changes it made. It closes the loop between imagination and execution just a little faster.

Thank Y’all

AI rapidly is changing. ETA until we are all replaced - 6 months (for sure this time).

I’m active on socials, relevant links found at tini.la/edgar.

Share if this helped you.

Till next time,

Edgar | A Vibe Coder

Reply

or to participate.