(TNND) — OpenAI is discontinuing Sora, an app that allows users to generate artificially intelligent videos with text prompts.
A major update to the app and Sora was announced just last fall, followed soon after by a $1 billion deal with Disney that would allow hundreds of the company’s iconic characters to be used in Sora AI-generated videos.
However, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has announced that it will end its partnership with Disney due to the closure of the Sora app.
OpenAI said it will release further information regarding the timeline for Sora’s shutdown in the coming days.
“We have decided to discontinue Sora in consumer apps and APIs. As we focus on and increase our computing demands, the Sora research team continues to focus on global simulation research and advancing robotics that help people solve real-world physical tasks,” an OpenAI spokesperson told the National News Desk in an emailed statement Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a Disney spokesperson issued a statement to TNND saying the company respects OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business.
“We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and the learnings we have learned, and we will continue to work with our AI platform to find new ways to meet our fans where they are, while responsibly embracing new technology that respects intellectual property and creator rights,” a Disney spokesperson said in an email.
OpenAI said canceling Sora was a difficult decision, but one that comes as the company focuses on its “roadmap” to artificial general intelligence and agent AI. Such breakthroughs include autonomous AI models, or models with capabilities that match or exceed human cognitive capabilities.
A spokesperson said Sora’s goal is to teach AI to understand and simulate the physical world in motion. OpenAI said it will continue to prioritize similar research, particularly related to robotics and helping people solve problems that require real-world interaction.
The company said the Sora retirement will not change the ChatGPT feature that allows users to create or edit images using AI from a text prompt.
However, video generation is not available with ChatGPT.
Anton Dervla, an AI expert and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Autonomous Assurance, said OpenAI’s decision was likely driven by a combination of financial, strategic and reputational factors.
He said video generation tools like Sora have high operating costs, and users’ subscriptions may not cover the actual costs.
Additionally, other types of AI tools may not have the same concerns about copyright infringement, misinformation, or “AI slop” that accompany user-generated AI clips currently circulating on social media.
Dabula said that with the proliferation of AI videos online, there is a risk of “hijacking reality”.
“As humans, we relied on believing our eyes and ears, and even those benign instances, seemingly benign instances, are not all that great,” he said. “They are harmful because they undermine the overall trust we can place in our senses.”
But Dabura and Daniel Schiff, a policy scientist and co-director of the Institute for Governance and Responsible AI at Purdue University, expressed skepticism that Sola’s death would significantly reduce the number of AI-generated videos circulating online.
Schiff said that while Sora may be one of the best-known AI video platforms, users can still take advantage of Google Veo, Runway, Luma, Kling, and more.
OpenAI had safety controls and watermarks in place, so switching to another platform may have fewer guardrails, Schiff said.
“I’m not sure we can be very optimistic that this is going to change the game in the video misinformation space,” Schiff said. “It may be a temporary shock. It may change the distribution of users in the short to medium term.”
