Today, OpenAI announced that it would be discontinuing the Sora video generation product. The end of Sora was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and has since been confirmed by the Sora team. The end of the Sora video platform also spells the end of Disney’s planned integration of more than 200 of its characters into the AI platform. In fact, the entire deal between Disney and OpenAI is dead, according to Variety. Here’s the latest.
OpenAI Ends Sora, Disney Exits $1 Billion Deal
The end of Sora comes just a few months after Disney announced a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI. Disney has now exited that deal. Here’s the announcement from Sora, followed by a statement from Disney, followed by some of the highlights of the previous deal.
We’re saying goodbye to the Sora app. 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.
As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect 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.
Under the previously announced terms of the now-dead deal, Disney would’ve made a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI and received warrants to purchase additional equity. Alongside the licensing agreement, Disney would’ve become a major customer of OpenAI, using its APIs to build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+, and deploying ChatGPT for its employees.
As part of the planned, three-year licensing agreement, Sora would’ve been able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that could be viewed and shared by fans, drawing from a set of more than 200 animated, masked, and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars, including costumes, props, vehicles, and iconic environments. In addition, ChatGPT Images would be able to turn a few words by the user into fully generated images in seconds, drawing from the same intellectual property. The agreement wouldn’t have included any talent likenesses or voices.
In addition to the visual components, Disney would’ve become a major customer of OpenAI, using its APIs to build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+, and deploying ChatGPT for its employees.
Under the license, fans would’ve been able to watch curated selections of Sora-generated videos on Disney+, and OpenAI and Disney were going to collaborate to utilize OpenAI’s models to power new experiences for Disney + subscribers, furthering innovative and creative ways to connect with Disney’s stories and characters.
While the deal between Disney and OpenAI is dead, we expect the tech-forward Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro will continue pursuing Artificial Intelligence and finding ways to leverage it across the company.
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