Overview
- OpenAI has shut down Sora, its AI video app and related models, six months after launch in a move consistent with a broader refocus on business tools reported across outlets.
- The Wall Street Journal reported Sora burned about $1 million per day as active users fell from roughly 1 million to under 500,000, which helped trigger the shutdown and sank a planned $1 billion Disney deal that partners learned about less than an hour before the news went public.
- OpenAI has paused a proposed adult or “erotic” ChatGPT mode indefinitely after testing exposed failures to block references to bestiality and incest and after internal advisers warned of safety and mental‑health risks.
- The company has also scaled back Instant Checkout shopping features and is reallocating scarce AI chips and staff toward enterprise products like coding assistance and AI agents, with reporting tying the retrenchment to IPO preparations.
- Competition from Anthropic, which said its Claude Code tool surpassed $2.5 billion in annualized revenue, and multiple lawsuits alleging ChatGPT harmed users are adding pressure to favor workplace uses with clearer business value over risky consumer experiments.