OpenAI shutters controversial AI video generator Sora

Reviews counsel Disney’s $1bn fairness funding into OpenAI won’t progress.

OpenAI is shutting down its controversial AI video generator Sora simply months after asserting a multi-year licensing cope with Disney. The corporate informed the BBC that the discontinuation will allow it to give attention to different developments, similar to robotics “that may assist individuals remedy real-world, bodily duties”.

Particulars on the timeline of the app’s shutdown, API and information preservation will probably be shared quickly, OpenAI’s Sora group mentioned in a put up on X. “To everybody who created with Sora, shared it, and constructed group round it – thanks. What you made with Sora mattered, and we all know this information is disappointing,” the put up learn.

The BBC additional reported that following Sora’s closure, OpenAI will not give attention to video-generation instruments.

Video fashions similar to Sora, its later iteration Sora 2 – which got here with a social media app to share the AI content material – in addition to more moderen ones similar to ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 have garnered sturdy criticism from artists and publishers who oppose to their copyrighted materials getting used to generate AI movies.

Previous to Sora’s launch in late 2024, protesting artists reportedly leaked the mannequin on Hugging Face, claiming they had been “lured” by OpenAI into “’artwork washing’ to inform the world that Sora is a great tool for artists”.

In the meantime, Disney’s three-year partnership and licensing cope with OpenAI got here after the corporate reportedly opted out of permitting its copyrighted materials from being utilized by Sora.

The deal, introduced in December 2025, gave OpenAI entry to greater than 200 Disney characters for use by Sora and ChatGPT Pictures. Alongside the licensing settlement, Disney additionally agreed to make a $1bn fairness funding in OpenAI. The funding has reportedly been scrapped.

“We respect OpenAI’s choice to exit the video era enterprise and to shift its priorities elsewhere,” a Disney spokesperson informed information retailers.

“We respect the constructive collaboration between our groups and what we discovered from it, and we are going to proceed to interact with AI platforms to seek out new methods to satisfy followers the place they’re whereas responsibly embracing new applied sciences that respect IP and the rights of creators.”

With Sora’s closure, OpenAI is seemingly shifting priorities in the direction of AI instruments suited to enterprise use, a sector the place Anthropic is capturing a majority of newcomers. In the meantime, Claude additionally overtook ChatGPT because the most downloaded app within the US final month.

To compete, OpenAI is constructing a brand new desktop ‘superapp’ by fusing collectively ChatGPT, Codex – the corporate’s coding device – and Atlas, an AI-powered internet browser launched final October.

“Sora was a useful resource black gap with sturdy compute prices and restricted monetisation. The platform additionally struggled to stop the creation of non-consensual imagery and practical misinformation, to not point out main copyright infringement,” commented Forrester’s VP principal analyst Thomas Husson.

“Within the context of its upcoming IPO, OpenAI doubtless determined to minimise the related dangers and prioritise earnings and enterprise instruments over experimental social apps, regardless of some shopper curiosity.

“Sora could also be repurposed for some robotics and bodily purposes, however it’s nonetheless very early days. On the finish of the day, it highlights that OpenAI remains to be very far-off from recouping its big investments.”

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