OpenAI to abruptly close Sora video app following backlash over deepfakes and AI slop
Despite signing a three-year deal with The Walt Disney Company that let users generate videos with over 200 Disney characters, OpenAI is shutting down its viral video app Sora.
OpenAI is abruptly shutting down its social media video generator app Sora, which went viral last autumn as a hub for creating and sharing short-form videos generated by artificial intelligence, but also sparked wide concern in Hollywood and beyond.
In a recent social media post on Tuesday (25 March), OpenAI said it was "saying goodbye to the Sora app" and would soon provide more details on how users can preserve content they created on the platform.
"What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing," it added.
First launched in late 2024, Sora quickly became a playground for the internet, which made full use of the tool to generate a wave of surreal, often absurd videos using the likeness of real people - churning out everything from videos of Michael Jackson stealing buckets of KFC chicken, to Stephen Hawking zipping up and down a skateboard ramp.
OpenAI launched Sora as a standalone app in September 2025, in a bid to capture the attention - and potentially the advertising revenue - driven by short-form video platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook.
But a growing chorus of advocacy groups, academics and experts expressed concern about the dangers of letting people create AI videos on just about anything they can type into a prompt, leading to the proliferation of nonconsensual images and realistic deepfakes in a sea of less harmful "AI slop".
OpenAI later moved to restrict AI-generated content featuring public figures - including Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mister Rogers - but only after backlash from family estates and an actors’ union.
The closure of the video generator comes just three months after OpenAI and The Walt Disney Company signed a three-year agreement allowing Sora users to create videos using more than 200 licensed Disney characters, including those from Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars.
Disney said in a statement on Tuesday that it respects "OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere."
"We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators," the statement said.
ChatGPT's image-generating capabilities have not been affected by Sora's closure, OpenAI have said.
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