OpenAI shuts down Sora AI app six months after launch, shifts focus to robotics research

OpenAI's Once Viral Sora AI Video App Is Being Discontinued

OpenAI confirmed on Tuesday that it is discontinuing its once-viral AI video app, Sora. "We've decided to discontinue Sora in the consumer app and API. As we focus and compute demand grows, the Sora research team continues to focus on world simulation research to advance robotics that will help people solve real-world, physical tasks," an OpenAI spokesperson told CNET. OpenAI joined Google and a myriad of other AI companies last fall when it released the second generation of its video model Sora and surprised AI users with a social media app by the same name. The unique app let you create AI videos featuring the likenesses of yourself and friends, leading to many concerns from celebrities, public figures and advocacy groups that the tech could be used to create hyperrealistic deepfakes. There's no word yet on what this means for OpenAI's $1 billion deal with Disney, which included licensing of over 200 Disney characters to appear on Sora. This is a developing story.

That Was Fast. OpenAI to Shut Down Sora Video Generator App

In a shocker, OpenAI will discontinue Sora, the video-generation app that briefly went viral last year but has since cooled off. "We're saying goodbye to Sora," the Sora account tweeted on Tuesday, adding: "We'll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work." The news is surprising considering Sora isn't even a year old. It launched in September as a TikTok-like app featuring AI-generated videos. Sora quickly hit the top spot on Apple's US App Store, but it has since dropped to 172 among free apps, according to SensorTower. OpenAI is indicating it would rather use Sora's compute resources for other projects, including its ongoing pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI). The San Francisco company told PCMag: "We've decided to discontinue Sora in the consumer app and API. As we focus and compute demand grows, the Sora research team continues to focus on world simulation research to advance robotics that will help people solve real-world, physical tasks." The robotics mentions hints that OpenAI sees a more lucrative opportunity in automation. The company was likely burning millions to power Sora's video generation, a free app. The decision to shutter Sora's API suggests the company might be ditching video generation altogether. Still, the company told PCMag that its main goal with Sora was to teach AI to understand and simulate the physical world in motion. The company plans to continue focusing on long-term research in world simulation. No changes are being made to image generation in ChatGPT. The move means the end of OpenAI's deal with Disney, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Amid copyright concerns over Sora users creating AI-generated videos featuring Disney characters, OpenAI and Disney signed a three-year content licensing deal in December that allowed Sora users to generate videos featuring 200+ Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters. Disney tells THR that it "will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators." Sora's demise occurs as OpenAI is reportedly prioritizing productivity tools, including coding assistants, amid intense competition with Anthropic. "We cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests," Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of applications, said during a recent internal meeting, according to The Wall Street Journal. In the meantime, the Sora app still works and remains available on the Google Play Store and Apple's iOS App Store.

OpenAI Plans to Discontinue Support for Sora AI Video Generator

OpenAI plans to discontinue its Sora AI video generator six months after the high-profile launch of a standalone app for the service, as the company works to simplify its portfolio of artificial intelligence products. The ChatGPT maker debuted the Sora app in late September with the promise of making it easier for users to generate and share realistic-looking artificial intelligence videos with each other in a quasi social network. The free app quickly rose to the top of Apple's App Store, but has since fallen in the rankings. The move coincides with a push by OpenAI to streamline its product lineup. The company is developing a desktop application to bring together its ChatGPT chatbot, coding tool and web browser, Bloomberg News has reported. Sora, like other AI video generators, was also a computationally intensive service. "As we focus and compute demand grows, the Sora research team continues to focus on world simulation research to advance robotics that will help people solve real-world, physical tasks," the OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. The Sora app was powered by a version of OpenAI's video-making software of the same name. It allowed users to generate short clips in response to text prompts, see videos created by others and remix clips. Some raised concerns about the product's potential to generate videos of real people and potentially spread misinformation. In addition to doing away with the standalone app, OpenAI will also shutter the application programming interface that developers use for Sora. "We're saying goodbye to Sora," OpenAI's Sora account posted on social media Tuesday. "To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing." The Wall Street Journal was first to report the news.

OpenAI officially cans its Sora AI app only six months after its release

Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech. Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics. Summary OpenAI is shutting down the Sora AI app just six months after its September 2025 launch. Sora lets users create AI-generated short videos and scroll an endless feed like TikTok. OpenAI has not yet offered a shutdown timeline; export your Sora content now before it becomes inaccessible. A little while ago, we heard that OpenAI was planning a "superapp" that brings all of its apps together. We saw ChatGPT, Codex, and Atlas brought under one roof, but for some reason, Sora wasn't listed. At the time, it was easy to assume it was because the Sora app was for mobile devices so that it would live independently of the others. However, OpenAI has now confirmed that it's scrapping the Sora AI app entirely, acting as the first casualty of its consumer apps. Related OpenAI is reportedly making its own GitHub because it kept going down If you want something done right, do it yourself Posts By Simon Batt OpenAI pulls the plug on Sora AI only six months after its release The great AI race is moving at breakneck speed If you're unfamiliar with Sora, it was released on September 30th, 2025, and positioned as an AI-generated video equivalent of TikTok. Users could make videos and cameos with themselves as the star, and they could scroll and endless feed of content other people made using OpenAI's Sora 2. It saw a ton of popularity at its release, but it seems the Sora app wasn't pulling its weight as much as OpenAI would have liked. In an X post, the official Sora account announced that it was shuttering the app. The post doesn't explain the shutdown timeline, so we're not sure when the app will stop working or how long people have to extract their content from the platform before it's gone forever. However, the company did say it will "share more soon," so we'll get that information eventually. For the time being, if you're a big Sora fan, now may be the best time to begin winding down your use of the app and finding ways to export the videos you love before they become inaccessible. Related Microsoft is axing one of its more beloved Android and iOS apps OneDrive is taking over. Posts 7 By Simon Batt OpenAI says it's redirecting its efforts to world simulation and robotics Something had to go So, why is OpenAI getting rid of the Sora AI app? Well, ever since its release, people have wondered how Sora would actually earn OpenAI revenue, and that was likely a big part of it. However, in a statement to CNET, an OpenAI spokesperson said that the company had bigger things to attend to: "We've decided to discontinue Sora in the consumer app and API. As we focus and compute demand grows, the Sora research team continues to focus on world simulation research to advance robotics that will help people solve real-world, physical tasks." It's an interesting statement implying that OpenAI wants to go beyond simple chatbots and software to build tools that can enhance people's physical lives. We'll have to wait and see what the company canned Sora for. Related Meta shuts down Horizon Worlds, signaling the end of its VR metaverse push The tech giant says it's still committed to VR Posts By Patrick O'Rourke

OpenAI is shutting down its Sora video generation app

OpenAI is shutting down its Sora video generation app. "We're saying goodbye to Sora," the company wrote in a X post published Tuesday afternoon. For now, OpenAI has yet to say when the app and its related API service would become unavailable. Instead, promising to share those details at a later date. "We've decided to discontinue Sora in the consumer app and API. As we focus and compute demand grows, the Sora research team continues to focus on world simulation research to advance robotics that will help people solve real-world, physical tasks," an OpenAI spokesperson told Engadget. While today's news might come as a surprise for some, there were warning signs Sora was heading in this direction since the start of the year. While Sora hit the top of the US App Store charts shortly after its debut, interest in the platform appears to have quickly fizzled out thereafter. At the start of 2026, data from analytics firm Appfigures suggested the app was seeing successive month-over-month declines in both new installs and user spending. In December alone, a time of year when most apps typically flourish, Sora reportedly saw a 32 percent decline in new downloads from November. The shutdown also aligns with OpenAI's recent shift in strategy. Since the release of GPT-5.2, the company's "code red" response to Google's Gemini 3 Pro model, OpenAI has tried to court professionals like coders and data analysts with systems that excel in those domains, seeing enterprise customers as a route toward profitability. However, today's shutdown does appear to come with an additional cost for OpenAI. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is exiting the deal it signed with the AI lab at the end of last year, and won't, as a result, invest $1 billion into it.

OpenAI pulls the plug on Sora, the viral AI video app that sparked deepfake concerns

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- OpenAI is shutting down its social media app Sora, which went viral last fall as a place to share short-form videos generated by artificial intelligence but also raised alarms in Hollywood and elsewhere. OpenAI said in a brief social media message Tuesday that it was "saying goodbye to the Sora app" and that it would share more soon about how to preserve what users already created on the app. "What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing," it said. The company behind ChatGPT released Sora in September as an attempt to capture the attention, and potentially advertising dollars, that follow short-form videos on TikTok, YouTube or Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook. But a growing chorus of advocacy groups, academics and experts expressed concern about the dangers of letting people create AI videos on just about anything they can type into a prompt, leading to the proliferation of nonconsensual images and realistic deepfakes in a sea of less harmful "AI slop." OpenAI was forced to crack down on AI creations of public figures -- among them, Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mister Rogers -- doing outlandish things, but only after an outcry from family estates and an actors' union. Disney, which made a deal with OpenAI last year to bring its characters to Sora, said in a statement Tuesday that it respects "OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere." "We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators," Disney's statement said.

OpenAI just killed its Sora AI video creation app - 9to5Mac

OpenAI released its second iPhone app in September with the launch of Sora. Unlike ChatGPT, however, Sora has failed to gain traction. As a result, OpenAI is discontinuing the app. As OpenAI's second-ever iPhone app, Sora launched to great fanfare. The AI video app included creation tools as well as a social media feed for generated content. Video creation basically had no limits, which made creating videos from text prompts easier than ever. OpenAI was quick to tighten up restrictions around using intellectual property without permission, which basically nuked the app. OpenAI announced the end of Sora in a post on X: We're saying goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. 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. - The Sora Team The move comes as OpenAI reportedly focuses its attention on creating a super app that combines ChatGPT, Codex development tools, and its struggling Atlas web browser.

OpenAI Discontinuing Sora AI Video App

OpenAI today said that it is ending support for its Sora AI video app just six months after it initially launched. We're saying goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing. OpenAI did not provide more detail into why Sora is being discontinued, but the company said that it plans to share more soon, including specific information on when the app and API will be shut down. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees that ending Sora will free up resources for OpenAI's next-generation AI models, according to The Information. Sora generates AI videos of real people, with each user uploading a "cameo" or short video of themselves that's used as the basis for AI prompts. Users are able to share their cameos with others, allowing anyone on the app to generate AI video with their likeness. When it launched at the end of September 2025, Sora gained viral popularity. It was downloaded more than a million times just a week and a half after launch, reaching the milestone faster than ChatGPT, and for a period of time, it was the top free app on the App Store. OpenAI received criticism for deepfake videos featuring celebrities both dead and alive, and the company stopped allowing users to create videos featuring celebrity likenesses or voices without express consent. The guardrails that OpenAI put in place killed some of the interest in the app, and its popularity died down.

OpenAI is shutting down Sora, its powerful AI video model, app and API

OpenAI is shuttering Sora, its stand-alone AI video generation app and social network, and the availability for developers to access the Sora 2 video model family through its application programming interface (API) to rely on it for their own products or video generation pipelines. The announcement came abruptly this afternoon with OpenAI posting a message on X and not giving an exact shutdown date for the services, instead promising "timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work." Sora wowed the world with its highly realistic scene-crafting when it was first previewed by OpenAI in February 2024, more than two years ago now, only to be released to mixed reception as an updated Sora Turbo model 10 months later, at which point, many other competing video AI model providers such as Runway, Luma, and Chinese AI companies Kling and Minimax had already shipped impressive rivals. But OpenAI seemed intent on continuing to build out the video model and enabling creators until just now, releasing a Sora 2 model over API and apps for iOS, then Android in the latter half of 2025 -- and the iOS app briefly hit number one in downloads on the Apple App Store. The application itself was designed to be a social network where users could insert AI generated lifelike versions of themselves and their friends into videos. The company released updates to Sora on a regular cadence all the way through this week, making the news of the shutdown even more abrupt. And Sora was even so enticing for a while that entertainment giant Disney signed a $1 billion equity investment deal with OpenAI announced in December 2025, just four months ago, to bring popular Disney characters to Sora, allowing users to generate new videos with them that Disney planned to share through Disney+, its streaming TV service. As that announcement read: "Under the license, fans will be able to watch curated selections of Sora-generated videos on Disney+, and OpenAI and Disney will collaborate to utilize OpenAI's models to power new experiences for Disney + subscribers, furthering innovative and creative ways to connect with Disney's stories and characters. Sora and ChatGPT Images are expected to start generating fan-inspired videos with Disney's multi-brand licensed characters in early 2026" Based on today's news, its unclear if that will happen in any fashion or if OpenAI's deal with Disney is even still on the table. We've reached out to OpenAI for more information and will update if and when we receive it. The move comes as OpenAI has openly stated its intent to focus on building a "super app" that would fold in some or all of the capabilities of its various products including chatbot ChatGPT, AI coding model and application Codex, and others into one interface. Reports from The Wall Street Journal and other outlets suggest the strategy shift is an effort at refocusing the entire company to take on the rise of competitor Anthropic and its Claude family, especially with regards to enterprises and software developers -- as Claude has seen rapid adoption and enterprise usage in the last few months, according to data from SimilarWeb and Ramp, driven by its prowess at coding and autonomously completing digital tasks. The news of Sora's demise came amid a restructuring of OpenAI's leadership and non-profit Foundation arm and a promise for the latter to invest $1 billion "across life sciences and curing diseases, jobs and economic impact, AI resilience, and community programs," suggesting a shift in focus away from AI-generated content and media.

OpenAI Kills Sora and Loses Disney's $1B Investment

In September, OpenAI launched the newest version of its generative AI video model, Sora 2, to significant initial fanfare and equally big copyright concerns. Today, just months later, OpenAI killed Sora. Although OpenAI only mentioned the end of the standalone Sora app on social media, The Wall Street Journal reports that this is a full-scale plug-pulling for Sora at large. "The move is one of a number of steps OpenAI is taking to refocus on business and coding functions ahead of a potential initial public offering as soon as the fourth quarter of this year," WSJ writes. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly told OpenAI staff today that the company is shutting down products that use its generative video models, including the Sora app, and will not support video functionality inside the company's widely used ChatGPT platform. WSJ reports that "some OpenAI" employees found it surprising how many resources OpenAI had dedicated to the Sora project and associated app, especially given a perceived lack of broader market demand for something like Sora. However, just a few months after launching Sora, Disney agreed to invest $1 billion in OpenAI. As part of this agreement, OpenAI would license many popular Disney characters for use in its generative AI apps, like Sora. With OpenAI killing Sora today, that deal is off. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is no longer planning to invest in OpenAI. "As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere. We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators," a Disney spokesperson said. The generative AI landscape is rapidly changing, and OpenAI has been particularly busy in the space, regularly releasing new products across diverse categories. Per a different WSJ report last week, OpenAI's CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, said the company must stop being distracted by "side quests" and focus its efforts on core services, including productivity and enterprise-centered applications. Sora, an apparent side quest, is no more. It remains to be seen which of OpenAI's other ventures, like its AI web browser, image generator, and ambitious hardware plans, survive the company's strategy shift.

OpenAI Is Reportedly Killing Its Disastrous Video AI Slop App

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech It didn't take long for OpenAI's text-to-video AI app, Sora, to melt down into outrageous drama. Almost immediately after the company rolled out the flashy smartphone app in early October, it became ground zero for photorealistic videos of people shoplifting, flagrantly copyright-infringing footage of SpongeBob SquarePants cooking up meth, and mocking clips of deceased celebrities. Less than five months on, OpenAI is looking to rid itself of the "unholy abomination" of Sora, a mind-numbing TikTok-like experience that few users stuck around to actually use regularly. (After initially topping App Store charts, downloads plummeted.) As the Wall Street Journal reports, OpenAI is now looking to discontinue the app entirely, once again highlighting how its jittery executives are looking to refocus the company's efforts on potential money makers, including enterprise and coding, ahead of its rumored IPO. CEO Sam Altman told staff in an announcement today that the company is winding down any products related to its video AI models. Even a developer-facing version of Sora will be nixed, per the WSJ. Perhaps most strikingly, a previously rumored integration inside the company's ChatGPT chatbot is also on the chopping block, indicating OpenAI has given up on the idea in its entirety. The dramatic U-turn leaves plenty of glaring questions unanswered. For one, we don't know what will come from a multi-billion-dollar deal OpenAI struck with Disney in December, a mere three months ago. The three-year deal was meant to include more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar characters, allowing users to generate videos of them inside Sora and ChatGPT. We also don't know OpenAI's exact reasoning behind the move. Could it be related to the widespread copyright infringement allegations its Sora app sparked last year? Or other abhorrent content? A more likely explanation, perhaps: the app is incredibly expensive for OpenAI to run, and it's not generating any revenue. "We cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests," OpenAI's CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, told employees in a memo, as quoted by the WSJ last week. "We really have to nail productivity in general and particularly productivity on the business front." Considering Sora has absolutely nothing to do with productivity in any meaningful way -- it's arguably the very antithesis -- it's no wonder OpenAI is looking to call it.

OpenAI kills the Sora AI video app, and it likely won't ever return

Sora was supposedly on its way to ChatGPT. Now, the AI video generator is going away forever. Merely six months after it launched as a standalone app, the Sora AI video generator app is riding into the sunset. The move is pretty surprising, as Google has ramped up its AI video efforts with Veo, while Chinese AI labels continue to deliver impressive results with products such as the viral Seedance AI video engine. A quick death for a viral AI tool "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 shared in a post. Interestingly, it was recently reported that OpenAI might eventually integrate Sora video generation capabilities within ChatGPT, similar to how Google has baked video generation within products such as Gemini and NotebookLM. Soon after it made its debut, it was embroiled in controversy over copyright violations. Soon after, the company made a course correction, bringing more control for rightsholders such as Disney, and other companies with famous franchises were often reproduced, or copied by Sora. It seems the troubles were a little too much, and money was just not coming in. What's next for Sora? Sunsetting the Sora app, but keeping it alive elsewhere, would have made sense. But it appears that Sora is being put on cold ice forever. According to The Wall Street Journal, the AI video generator will go away -- for good. "In addition to the consumer app, OpenAI is also discontinuing a version of Sora for developers and won't support video functionality inside ChatGPT, either," the outlet reports. Sora was among the first wave of mainstream AI products that injected senseless "AI slop" videos on the internet. Aside from the obvious copyright violations, it was abused for some morbidly disturbing trends. For example, it was used to create eerily realistic videos of deceased public figures, including Kobe Bryant, Michael Jackson, John Lennon, and Amy Winehouse. Recommended Videos These videos stirred plenty of online furor. But it won't be the first such instance of its kind. AI birthed a whole trend where companies charged money to create videos of dead soldiers as a family goodbye for their families.

OpenAI pulls the plug on its Sora AI video app

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting. OpenAI said Tuesday that it is discontinuing its Sora AI video app. The move comes as the video platform wanes in popularity among users, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported OpenAI's decision to pull the plug. "We've decided to discontinue Sora in the consumer app and API. As we focus and compute demand grows, the Sora research team continues to focus on world simulation research to advance robotics that will help people solve real-world, physical tasks," an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. In a social media post, OpenAI also expressed thanks to Sora users, saying that "we know this news is disappointing." AI video apps have wowed tech fans for their ability to almost instantly generate videos, while drawing criticism for making it harder to distinguish real from fake images. In 2025, Sora courted controversy when some users generated what the company characterized as "disrespectful depictions" of Martin Luther King Jr., prompting it to temporarily block app users from making videos using the civil rights activist's likeness.

OpenAI shutting down Sora video generating service in stunning move

OpenAI will soon be shutting down its Sora AI video generating service, the company said in a surprising announcement Tuesday. "We're saying goodbye to Sora," the company wrote in a post on X. "We'll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work." The closure of the resource-intensive AI service comes ahead of an expected initial public stock offering from OpenAI in the coming months. The unveiling of Sora in 2024 rattled many in the entertainment industry, who quickly expressed concerns over the model's ability to easily and quickly generate relatively high-quality video from text. In October, the Sora 2 app surged to be the most popular app in the iOS App Store's Photo and Video category within a day of its release, with many users creating lifelike videos of popular characters such as Lara Croft, Mario and Pikachu. Many of the videos raised alarm bells from copyright and deepfake experts. In December, the Walt Disney Co. announced that it had reached a three-year deal with OpenAI to bring many of its popular characters to Sora's artificial intelligence video generator. Disney also said it planned to make a $1 billion investment in OpenAI as part of the agreement. Disney pledged to become a "major customer" of OpenAI, using its services to develop new products and experiences, including for its Disney+ streaming service. NBC News has reached out to Disney for comment. In recent weeks, top OpenAI executives have said that they are sharpening the company's focus, recognizing that it cannot do "everything at once," according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. Just weeks ago, OpenAI announced that it had raised $110 billion in fresh funding, vaulting the company's total value to about $730 billion.

OpenAI Just Killed Sora

OpenAI is looking ahead to a potential initial public offering later this year. It's the end of an (albeit short) era: OpenAI is reportedly shutting down Sora, the company's once-viral AI video generation app. The Wall Street Journal was the first to break the story, and reports that the company is shuttering the app as part of a grander plan to streamline OpenAI ahead of a potential IPO (initial public offering) later this year. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed the news first with company staff on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal says. It seems the move goes beyond just shutting down the Sora app itself: In addition to axing a developer-version of Sora, Altman reportedly told staff that OpenAI would not incorporate its AI video models in other company products going forward, including ChatGPT. Sora's official X account posted to confirm the news: This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. OpenAI only launched Sora in October of last year, and in that short period of time, the app helped propel AI-generated slop across social media feeds, including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Sora is far from the only tool people use to make to AI video content, but it offered an easy solution for generating hyper-realistic short-form video content. If you encountered AI versions of the types of videos you tend to scroll past on social media, chances are it came from Sora. Sora also made it possible to generate "Cameos," or make videos with the likeness of real people. The company was adamant its privacy and security policies were significant enough to ensure it wouldn't be used for ill, but the potential for deepfakes was so great, it seemed like a pandora's box waiting to be opened. Still, Sora gained some legitimacy in the eyes of traditional media, too: In a perplexing move, Disney partnered with OpenAI to let users generate videos featuring over 200 Disney characters. You might assume OpenAI paid for that integration, but on the contrary, Disney made an equity investment of $1 billion into the company. (That is not a typo.) But with Sora's sunsetting, Disney officially exited the deal on Tuesday. This announcement has implications beyond Sora the app. If OpenAI largely abandons AI video generation in general, it will be exiting a tight race amongst competition from companies like Google (Veo) and ByteDance (Seedance). The Sora app uses OpenAI's Sora video model, which the company announced two years ago. Back then, OpenAI's concept video scared the bejeezus out of me; since then, the AI video market has only exploded. While Sora might've been the go-to for short-form nonsense, there's plenty of other AI slop across the internet being made with other tools -- some of which is getting extremely difficult to discern from reality. OpenAI seems to have a difference focus going forward. The company previously announced a new "super app" that combines its web browser (Atlas), ChatGPT, and Codex coding app into one program. I guess Sora didn't fit into that equation.

OpenAI to Shut Down the Sora Video App

"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. "As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere," a Disney spokesperson said. "We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators." 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.

OpenAI to shut down Sora video app after six-month run - WSJ By Investing.com

Investing.com - OpenAI plans to discontinue its Sora video-generation service six months after debuting a standalone app, the company said Tuesday, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal. The ChatGPT maker will also shutter the application programming interface that developers use for Sora. The app, released last year, allowed people to insert themselves into famous movie scenes, among other functions. The move is one of a number of steps OpenAI is taking to refocus on business and coding functions ahead of a potential initial public offering as soon as the fourth quarter of this year. The Sora app was powered by a version of OpenAI's video-making software of the same name. The app allowed users to generate short clips in response to text prompts, see videos created by others and remix clips, serving as a kind of social network for the AI developer. The free app quickly rose to the top of Apple's App Store but has since fallen in the rankings. "As we focus and compute demand grows, the Sora research team continues to focus on world simulation research to advance robotics that will help people solve real-world, physical tasks," an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

OpenAI Shuts Down Sora Generative Video App, Disney Pulls Out of Investment and Licensing Deal

Sam Altman's OpenAI has shut down its controversial video generation app Sora just months after it launched, the company announced Tuesday. As a result, Disney has exited the $1 billion investment deal it made last year with OpenAI that would have allowed Sora to license Disney-owned characters and content. In a social media post (which can be seen below), Sora announced: "We're saying goodbye to the Sora app. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. 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." Sora 2 hit like a tidal wave when it launched in September 2025, shocking Hollywood studios and artists with its ability to allow users to create realistic videos featuring highly valuable intellectual property and the likenesses of public figures like movie stars and politicians. The Japanese government urged OpenAI to refrain from copyright infringement, while the Japan Commercial Broadcasters' Association warned that OpenAI and Sora 2's use of anime IPs could "potential to destroy Japan's content production culture and ecosystem." Movie studios and streamers were quick to sic their legal teams on Sora, and unions such as SAG-AFTRA were aghast at the unpaid appropriation of their members' voices and likenesses in slews of viral videos created by anyone who could use Sora 2. For now, Disney has backed off its deal with OpenAI, although its possible the media empire could make a deal with a different artificial intelligence giant down the line. "As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere," a Disney spokesperson informed The Hollywood Reporter. "We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators."