This is the first big step by the ChatGPIT creator to focus its business on potentially more lucrative areas like coding tools.
Published on 25 March 2026
OpenAI is shutting down its social media app Sora, which went viral late last year as a place to share short-form videos generated by artificial intelligence but also sparked concern in Hollywood and elsewhere.
OpenAI said in a brief social media message Tuesday that it is “saying goodbye to the Sora app” and that it will soon share details about how to preserve what users have already created on the app.
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“What you did to Sora matters and we know this news is disappointing,” it said.
The company behind ChatGPT released Sora in September in an effort to attract attention and potentially advertising dollars to short-form video that follows TikTok, YouTube or Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook.
But a growing number of advocacy groups, academics and experts have expressed concern about the dangers of allowing people to create AI videos on almost anything, which could lead to the proliferation of non-consensual 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 – who were doing weird things, but only after protests from the family estate and the actors’ union.
Disney, which struck a deal with OpenAI last year to bring its characters to Sora, said in a statement on Tuesday that it “respects OpenAI’s decision to exit the video production business and shift its priorities elsewhere”.
On Monday evening, the Walt Disney and OpenAI teams were working together on a project involving Sora. Just 30 minutes into the meeting, the Disney team was shocked to hear that OpenAI was shutting down the tool altogether, a person familiar with the matter said.
OpenAI announced the move publicly on Tuesday.
“It was a big tug of war,” according to the person, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter.
messy process
The move is the first big step by the ChatGate maker to focus its business on potentially more lucrative areas like coding tools and corporate customers.
But Sora’s sudden cancellation shows how messy the streamlining process could get as OpenAI prepares for a stock market debut that could come later this year.
Sora’s decision means the end of the $1 billion blockbuster deal between Disney and the ChatGPT maker, which was announced a little more than three months ago. As part of a three-year deal, Disney said it will invest $1 billion in OpenAI and lend more than 200 of its iconic characters to be used in short, AI-generated videos.
But two other people familiar with the matter said the transaction between the companies never closed, and no money changed hands.
