Surprisingly, OpenAI is closing down its Sora AI video app just a few months after first releasing it.
“We say goodbye to Sora. We thank everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built a community around Sora,” the company said in a statement. “What you created with Sora was important, and we know this news is disappointing. We’ll be sharing more details soon, including a timeline for our apps and APIs, and details about preserving your work.”
A person familiar with the matter said. hollywood reporter Disney is also ending a deal it signed last year with OpenAI, in which it pledged to invest $1 billion in the company and agreed to license some of the characters used in Sora.
OpenAI, led by CEO Sam Altman, isn’t looking to get out of the AI video business (AI video is one of the many tools that can take shape in the ChatGPT app). But the standalone Sora app appears to be a casualty of its evolving ambitions.
Sora launched last fall and shocked and awed Hollywood with its liberal use of established intellectual property and well-known actors. The company had to reverse the policy within days of launch, giving Hollywood studios and talent more control over their IP and likeness on the platform.
But the app’s closure also raises questions for Disney. Last December, Disney made a big deal to invest in OpenAI in exchange for adding some characters to Sora. The goal, of course, was to integrate that technology into Disney+ itself.
Currently, the contract with OpenAI has ended, but the company may sign a deal with another AI giant.
“As the nascent field of AI advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and shift its priorities to other areas,” a Disney spokesperson said. “We are grateful for the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with our AI platform to find new ways to meet our fans where they are, while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect intellectual property and creator rights.”
No matter how generative AI changes video development and production, it looks like Sora will end up being a footnote rather than a game-changing software.
It also puts Google in a strong position when it comes to AI video generation, effectively making it the only player with the ability to scale in this space, although so far Google has not entered into any agreements with IP holders (indeed, it is facing lawsuits from some of them).
