OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, will shut down the service for its artificial intelligence (AI) video-generation app "Sora," unveiled last year. The move is seen as part of a full-scale business overhaul centered on coding and corporate customers ahead of this year's initial public offering (IPO).
On the 24th (local time), the OpenAI Sora team said on its official account on social media (SNS) X (formerly Twitter) that it was "saying goodbye to the Sora app," announcing its withdrawal. OpenAI said it would provide further guidance on details such as the service end schedule and how to preserve users' work.
OpenAI launched the Sora app in September last year. Sora, an SNS app for creating and sharing AI-generated videos, was touted as a "TikTok rival" and made a splash, surpassing 1 million downloads just five days after launch. However, it struggled to scale the service as user interest cooled, with new app downloads dropping sharply.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that, as a result, internal criticism grew at OpenAI that Sora's performance lagged compared with the massive computing resources poured into it.
Controversies such as copyright infringement and deepfakes (AI-manipulated videos) tied to the Sora app also appear to have influenced the decision to shut it down. The Motion Picture Association (MPA), in a statement issued right after "Sora 2" launched, said "Sora 2 is being used to unlawfully exploit copyrighted content," and urged OpenAI to take "immediate and decisive action."
Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said in a memo to employees that the decision to withdraw Sora was made to focus on "capital raising, supply chain management, and building data centers at an unprecedented scale." OpenAI is developing its next major AI model codenamed "Spud," and said it needs to halt operation of the Sora app to secure the computing resources required to run it.
Altman added that the Sora team will take on long-term projects such as robotics.
With OpenAI's decision to discontinue Sora, a three-year licensing deal signed with The Walt Disney Company in December last year and a $1 billion (about 1.5 trillion won) investment partnership also fell through. Disney said it respects OpenAI's decision to exit the video-generation business and prioritize other areas as AI, a nascent field, advances rapidly.