OpenAI Shutting Down Sora Video App

In a surprise move, OpenAI will shut down its Sora AI video app, just months after it was first launched.

“We’re saying goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you,” the company said in a statement. “What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing. We’ll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work.”

OpenAI, led by CEO Sam Altman, is not getting out of the AI video business, of course, but it appears the standalone Sora app will be a casualty of its evolving ambitions.

Sora launched last fall, shocking and awing Hollywood with its free use of established intellectual property and known actors. The company had to backtrack a few days after it launched, giving Hollywood studios and talent more control over their IP and likenesses on the platform.

But the closure of the app also raises questions for Disney, which inked a blockbuster deal to invest in OpenAI last December, in exchange for adding some of its characters to Sora. The goal, of course, was to integrate the tech into Disney+ itself, so that may be where it ends up.

However generative AI changes video development and production, it appears that Sora will end up as a footnote, rather than a game-changing piece of software.