OpenAI is shutting down Sora, its AI video app

"We cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests," an exec said.

This post originally appeared in Understanding AI.

“It seems that once the novelty of AI-generated video wore off, users didn’t feel compelled to come back to the app day after day.”

When Kai and I wrote our 2026 predictions post last December, we disagreed about the future of AI video. I thought a recent deal with Disney would help to make OpenAI’s Sora the leading AI video app. Kai disagreed. Noting that “Meta is very skilled at building compelling products that grow its user base,” Kai predicted that Meta’s Vibes platform would wind up with more users than Sora by the end of 2026.

We don’t need to wait until the end of the year to find out who was right, because OpenAI just announced it was shutting down Sora.

The decision was so abrupt that it apparently caught both employees and partners off guard. OpenAI published a blog post about Sora’s safety guidelines on Monday, suggesting the Sora team didn’t know the project was about to be canceled.