OpenAI announced that it's shuttering the app for the text-to-video model Sora in a move that left users reeling and critics celebrating. On Tuesday, the app's social accounts revealed that it's "saying goodbye" and promised a timeline and ways for users to preserve their generated "work."
This move comes after lofty promises from OpenAI, followed by serious funding troubles and a shaky Pentagon contract.
Bye-bye video AI
After only a few months of existence, the Sora app, also known as Sora 2, is headed for the grave. After launching in September 2025 and advertising itself as a way to easily churn out video content for social media, the program put out its own obituary on X.
"We’re saying goodbye to the Sora app," the Sora Team wrote. "To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing."
"We’ll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work."
This also ends a brewing $1 billion deal with Disney after OpenAI partnered with the media giant to allow users to add its iconic characters to their slop. According to Reuters, the move was "startling" for Disney, with an anonymous insider allegedly calling it a "big rug-pull."
Reports indicate that OpenAI is restructuring in an attempt to become a "super-app." It's shifting away from expensive text-to-video generation and toward robotics, coding assistance, and enterprise projects. Maybe it will also spend more time making sure it doesn't anger the Pentagon.
The fate of Sora itself looks to be similar to its app in spite of the continuing popularity of slop content like the weird AI cheating fruit trend. The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI will wind down all products using the text-to-video model and will not add video capabilities to ChatGPT.
"The bubble is bursting"
The end of Sora didn't come as a surprise to everyone. The launch of Sora 2 was met with fierce criticism from some, especially those impacted by deepfake videos.
Others have been predicting a generative AI bubble burst for some time—and they think this is only the beginning.
"The bubble is bursting," wrote @TheBTCTherapist on X, pointing to OpenAI's "$207 billion funding gap."
User @PanasonicDX4500 compared the announcement to "a little 3.1 earthquake right before the one that gets a Wikipedia article."
Meanwhile, @Xenoimpulse gained over 2.3 million views with a simple response calling the end of Sora "a bad sign for a few things."
While the few who had made some money or at least gained followers with their Sora slop grieved, AI haters celebrated. User @spiderbeef23 grabbed 3.2 million views with a thread "the most impactful pieces of art it produced." The thread is empty of video content other than some clips of real films and animated shows.
"WE DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR MESSAGE. GOODBYE," @Plun_Yu replied to the Sora Team with a clip of some real art.
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