OpenAI Enters Its Focus Era by Killing Sora

OpenAI said Tuesday it would discontinue Sora, its AI video app, roughly six months after launch. The company also said it would shutter the Sora API that allowed developers and Hollywood studios to access the text-to-video model.

The move shows how the ChatGPT-maker is trying to focus its efforts ahead of a planned IPO. OpenAI’s chief financial officer Sarah Friar said in an interview with CNBC Tuesday that OpenAI needs to be “ready to be a public company.”

Since ChatGPT’s launch, CEO Sam Altman has run the company like Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley incubator he used to lead, placing bets on a wide range of products. This includes Sora, as well as a browser, a family of hardware devices, robots, and Codex, its AI-powered coding agent.

These efforts have had varying levels of success, and Sora's growth in particular has stalled in recent months. After peaking ...