One of them is Sora, a groundbreaking but quickly overtaken video generation app from OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT.
Sola, who was born in December 2024 and was given a $1 billion Disney contract a year later, was fired by OpenAI on Tuesday, along with his Disney contract.
“We are saying goodbye to the Sora app,” the Sora team announced via the OpenAI X feed on Tuesday. “To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built a community around it. Thank you. What you created with Sora mattered. We know this news is disappointing.”
OpenAI did not confirm reports that Sora would soon be available within ChatGPT itself, but promised to “share more information soon, including timelines for the app and API and details about saving your work.”
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Sora departed with a loud bang. Some of us even wondered if this announcement heralded the arrival of a new film medium. But it was quickly overtaken by other more full-featured AI video generation apps, such as Google’s Veo and Luma Ray.
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In December 2025, the power of Disney movies was added to the Sora app through a $1 billion deal. This will allow users to create videos using some of Disney’s vast copyrighted characters. But as we also noted at the time, this deal was much better for Disney than OpenAI, which continues to burn through cash at a rate of about $1 billion a month.
All is well: Disney CEO Bob Iger says the deal with OpenAI is not a threat to creatives.
Still, Disney CEO Bob Iger recently touted the deal with OpenAI, which was scheduled to last three years until February 2026. However, in the world of AI, one month is a long time.
“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. hollywood reportermultiple Hollywood insider reports confirmed that the deal was DOA.
“We’re grateful for the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we’ve learned,” the Disney spokesperson continued, “and we will continue to work with our AI platforms to find new ways to meet our fans where they are, while responsibly embracing new technology that respects intellectual property and creator rights.”
This sudden and confusing announcement annoyed many Sora creators on social media, but it suggests that all is not well behind the scenes at Sam Altman’s company. OpenAI has recently scrambled to introduce new mental health protections for its teenage users following multiple wrongful death lawsuits. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Disclosure: Mashable’s parent company, Ziff Davis, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging that it infringed on Ziff Davis’ copyrights in the training and operation of its AI systems.
