OpenAI he decided to discontinue development and use of Soraits application for generating videos using artificial intelligence. The choice comes less than two years after its launch, when the platform attracted global attention for its ability to create highly realistic clips from simple textual input. The Sora team made the announcement in a short post on He didn’t give much explanation regarding what happened. Just a few months ago, OpenAI announced a $1 billion deal with Disney to allow users to use its characters in the creation of videos, an agreement that would fall through.
According to the Wall Street Journalbehind the move made by OpenAI there would be the desire to realign your priorities to become more solid and “presentable” from an economic and operational point of view, in view of a possible listing on the stock exchange within the fourth quarter of this year. At the BBCFurthermore, OpenAI explained that «having stopped the development of Sora to be able to focus on other initiatives, such as robotics which will help people solve concrete physical problems».
Sora, competition and copyright
Sora had been thrown into the 2024 and stood out for the quality of the videos generated, sometimes indistinguishable from professional productions. The operation was based on generative modelsthat is, systems trained on large amounts of data to produce new content similar to that observed during training. This approach, already used for images and texts, had been extended to video, opening up new but also complex scenarios. The possibility of generating realistic content has indeed raised questions about copyright and on the risk of unauthorized use of protected material.
A key step was the agreement with Disney, reached a few months ago, which had licensed some of its intellectual properties to OpenAI. This agreement, which allowed the generation of videos with iconic characters, was interpreted as a turning point in the relationship between the technology and entertainment industries. An agreement which, however, did not have time to consolidate: with the closure of Sora, this collaboration was also interrupted. Regarding the incident, a Disney spokesperson said: «We respect OpenAI’s decision to abandon the video generation sector and focus its priorities elsewhere».
Since Sora entered the solutions industry text-to-videocontent generated with AI has taken on an increasingly realistic connotation. As technology improves, however, it is Competition has also increased. New players, such as the Chinese platform Seedancehave introduced similar tools, fueling (in addition to competition) also the aforementioned controversies linked to the creation of content with the likeness of actors or well-known personalities. In such a context, maintaining a dominant position requires continuous investments and a clear long-term strategy. This suggests that the company headed by Sam Altman no longer intended to continue its run in the video generation sector. And this was one of the causes that led to the announcement made on X by the Sora team.
OpenAI has decided to redefine its priorities
With the farewell to Sora one fact is clear: OpenAI has decided to redefine its priorities. The company said it plans to review its own operational strategy by concentrating efforts on technologies capable of solving concrete problems in the physical world, such as robotics. In this context, techniques developed to generate videos – for example understanding visual dynamics and movement – can be reused to train robots to interact with the real environment. The company also aims to develop “agent” systems, designed to perform complex tasks autonomously, reducing the need for human intervention.
Another element to consider is the commercial strategy. OpenAI seems geared towards creating an integrated platform that combines different tools into a single interface. In this scenario, Sora could appear as a poorly aligned product, closer to a technology demonstration than a central service in the company’s strategy. Closure can therefore also be read as an operation of simplification of the product portfolioin view of possible future financial developments which, according to some forecasts, could lead to a possible listing on the stock exchange by the end of this year.
When the app will close
Regarding the timing and, therefore, to when will Sora actually closeOpenAI has not provided details at the moment. In the announcement, in fact, the Sora team simply limited itself to saying: «We’re saying goodbye to the Sora app. (…) We will share more information soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on how to save your work».
