OpenAI announced Tuesday it’s discontinuing Sora, the AI video generation tool launched at the end of 2024. The TikTok-style Sora app and API access for developers will both shut down, with no plans to integrate the technology into ChatGPT.
Disney’s $1 billion investment deal announced in December is also ending, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The partnership would have allowed Disney to license its characters for use within Sora and distribute AI-generated videos on Disney Plus. That’s now dead.
Sam Altman told staff there are no plans to salvage the feature or roll it into other OpenAI products. Sora posted a farewell message Tuesday: “We’re saying goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing.”
OpenAI has not explained why it’s shuttering Sora or what (if anything) went wrong with the Disney partnership. The Wall Street Journal reported the decision but provided no details about the technical or business factors driving the shutdown. I don’t want to speculate about this; we will learn the details in the fullness of time.
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Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.