It didn’t take long for OpenAI’s text-to-video AI app, Sora, to turn into outrageous drama. Almost immediately after the company launched the flashy smartphone app in early October, it became ground zero for photorealistic videos of people shoplifting, apparently copyright-infringing footage of SpongeBob SquarePants cooking meth, and mocking clips of dead celebrities.
In less than five months, OpenAI wants to rid itself of “unholy abominationsSora’s a mind-numbing TikTok-like experience that few users are actually willing to use regularly. (After initially topping the App Store charts, downloads decreased.)
In form of wall street journal reportsOpenAI is now considering shutting down the app entirely, once again highlighting how its nervous executives are looking to refocus the company’s efforts on potential money makers, including enterprise and coding, ahead of the company’s rumored IPO.
CEO Sam Altman told employees in an announcement today that the company is shutting down any products related to its video AI models. Even the developer-facing version of Sora will be scrapped WSJ.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the first There is rumor of integration inside the company’s ChatGPIT chatbot is also on the chopping block, indicating that OpenAI has completely abandoned the idea.
This dramatic U-turn leaves many burning questions unanswered. For one thing, we don’t know what will happen from the multibillion-dollar deal OpenAI signed with Disney just three months ago in December. The three-year deal was intended to include over 200 Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar characters, allowing users to create videos of them inside Sora and ChatGPIT.
We also don’t know OpenAI’s exact reasoning behind this move. could it be related to Allegations of widespread copyright infringement Its Sora app made waves last year? Or other disgusting material?
A more likely explanation, perhaps: It’s incredibly expensive for OpenAI to run the app, and it’s not generating any revenue.
“We cannot afford to miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests,” Fidzi Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, told employees in a memo. quoted by WSJ Last week. “We really have to increase productivity in general and productivity on the business front in particular.”
Considering that Sora has nothing to do with productivity in any meaningful way – it’s arguably quite the opposite – it’s no surprise that OpenAI is considering calling it that.
More on Sora: People Are Already Making Extremely Scary Sora Disney Videos
