Well here’s something no one had on their bingo cards: in a move entirely out of step with the seemingly unstoppable march of artificial intelligence across all forms of human creativity, this week OpenAI announced it was shutting down one of its AI platforms. OpenAI is the company we have to thank for ChatGPT, the generative chatbot launched in 2022 that spews out answers to prompts, which it has the ability to do thanks to being “trained” on copyrighted works without consent, and oh yeah, double check whatever it says anyway because it’s rife with mistakes. With ChatGPT covering words, OpenAI launched a video generating operation in 2024 called Sora, which was pretty popular? OpenAI sure gave the impression they saw a future for Sora, given they recently signed a three-year licensing deal with Disney for the rights to use The Mouse’s characters. And then out of nowhere, OpenAI says, “Thanks, Sora, it’s been real.” (And by “real” of course we mean artificial.) What gives? A human writer at the New York Times tried piecing it together:
OpenAI is shutting down Sora, the video-generation technology the company unveiled in 2024, shocking entertainment executives with its ability to use artificial intelligence to quickly produce short videos that looked as if a Hollywood studio had made them.
Just three months ago, OpenAI and Disney signed a three-year licensing deal allowing Sora users to generate videos with Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Yoda. The agreement was considered a watershed for the tech industry and Hollywood, and some worried it was the first big step toward replacing the entertainment industry’s actors and creators with A.I.
OpenAI is shutting down both its Sora consumer app and the internet service that moviemakers and other professionals used to generate images for movies, television and other media, the company said.
In a statement to The New York Times, OpenAI said it would continue to use video-generation technologies behind the scenes as a way of teaching skills to robots. Because videos provide a reasonable simulation of the physical world, they are often used to train robots for specific tasks.
“We’re saying goodbye to Sora,” OpenAI said in a social media post. “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 give a reason for shutting down Sora. But the decision appears to be part of the company’s efforts to focus and streamline its operations as it prepares for an initial public offering as early as this year.
Last year, OpenAI pulled in about $13 billion in revenue, but it expects to spend about $100 billion more over the next four years, in part for a major expansion of data centers.
Running a video-generation service — particularly a consumer app with no source of revenue — is an enormous expense. A.I. technologies like Sora require far more computing power and electricity than traditional internet services.
Disney said it would continue to explore partnerships with A.I. companies willing to license its intellectual property.
“As the nascent A.I. field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video-generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere,” the company said in a statement. “We will continue to engage with A.I. platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect I.P. and the rights of creators.”
Whelp, I still have no clearer sense of what OpenAI is playing at with this move. Though I do appreciate the NY Times’ efforts — particularly their spelling out the massive energy cost of these generative platforms. All for what… making your own Mickey Mouse video? And speaking of, Disney still has a lawsuit going against another AI company, Midjourney, for copyright infringement. But I love how quick they were here to declare they’re perfectly willing to accept money from another AI video outfit in a licensing deal! Also, I’m sure the Disney lawyers worked it out so The Mouse doesn’t have to give anything back to OpenAI.
Again, I’m flummoxed by this development, to the point where I don’t feel comfortable celebrating quite yet. Like I’m bracing for OpenAI to launch something worse with full supervillain flourish. Or was it just that they didn’t have enough money to run a chatbot and video platform? No, wait! You guys, I figured it out: ChatGPT TOLD them to tank Sora! C’mon, you know the bot would do it, that little f–ker.
Note by CB: Here’s an example of Sora. I debated whether to include this.
RIP Sora, you gave us the greatest ai video of all time https://t.co/Hd4vbqyw95 pic.twitter.com/37z1IdgBjZ
— spor (@sporadica) March 24, 2026
Header is a screenshot from YouTube. Other photo of Sam Altman credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
This was extremely predictable. AI is a massive bubble and Sora was burning up so much investor capital All for no profit.
I am also holding my breath for the next supervillain move. That said, the only people I know who are obsessed with sora ai are my 6th and 8th grade students… and those kiddos are NOT big spenders. I would LOVE it if the bubble is finally popping, with due respect and sympathy to the grunts who are just trying to make a living. They will be the ones who lose their jobs and pay the price, not Altman and the like.
Sam Altman has done thing after unethical thing. I finally had it with ads on Chatgpt and also the pentagon thing. I researched Anthropic. It’s president, Dario Amodei (watched some of his interviews) He gets the ethics and dangers of AI. The stuff people ask is so personal (a data goldmine) I need my questions going to a trustworthy biz. Got Claude and never looking back.
Does that mean no more Mr Mittens videos? I’m inconsolable. I hope Tabby Topics will continue.