OpenAI Discontinues Sora AI Video App Amid Terminated Disney Partnership

OpenAI has announced the discontinuation of Sora, its generative AI video creation application, approximately six months after the launch of its standalone app. This decision coincides with the termination of a significant licensing and investment agreement with The Walt Disney Company, which would have allowed Sora users to generate videos featuring Disney characters.

Discontinuation Announcement

OpenAI communicated the discontinuation of its AI video generator, Sora, on Tuesday, without publicly providing a specific reason for the decision beyond a general statement about shifting priorities. The company issued statements via social media, acknowledging the community built around Sora and indicating that further details regarding the shutdown timeline and instructions for saving created videos would be released.

With Sora's discontinuation, ChatGPT will also no longer support video generation from text prompts. However, the underlying Sora 2 model reportedly remains accessible, integrated behind the ChatGPT paywall.

Sora's Development and Functionality

Sora, which utilized a text-to-video model, was initially previewed by OpenAI in February 2024. The first public version was released in December 2024, followed by the launch of its standalone app and second iteration, Sora 2, in September 2025.

The app functioned as an AI-first social network, enabling users to create and share short-form, AI-generated videos. A feature initially named "cameos" and later "characters" allowed users to create deepfakes of themselves for use by others.

The app briefly became a top download on Apple's App Store, achieving a peak of approximately 3.3 million downloads across iOS and Google Play in November.

Downloads subsequently declined to about 1.1 million by February. Estimates indicate the app generated approximately $2.1 million from in-app purchases for video generation credits.

Partnership with Disney

The discontinuation follows the termination of a three-year licensing agreement between OpenAI and The Walt Disney Company. This agreement, announced approximately three months prior to the shutdown, would have involved a $1 billion investment by Disney into OpenAI.

The partnership aimed to allow Sora users to generate videos featuring over 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars properties, with curated selections planned for Disney+ by early 2026. The agreement specifically excluded the use of talent likeness or voices.

A Disney representative confirmed the termination of the partnership, stating the company's respect for OpenAI's decision to exit the video generation business and redirect its priorities.

Disney had also intended to become a major OpenAI customer, leveraging its APIs for new products, tools, and experiences, and implementing ChatGPT for its employees. Disney affirmed its commitment to exploring AI platforms responsibly while addressing intellectual property and creator rights. The anticipated $1 billion investment from Disney did not materialize.

Concerns and Criticisms

Throughout its operation, Sora faced various criticisms and concerns. These included the platform's opt-out model for copyrighted material, which led to demands from the Japanese content trade group CODA (including Studio Ghibli) in November to cease using their content for Sora 2's training.

Concerns were also raised regarding the potential for violent and racist content, the unauthorized use of copyrighted characters (such as Mario, Naruto, and Pikachu), the creation of deepfakes and misinformation, and the generation of nonconsensual images. OpenAI had previously implemented restrictions on generating AI content depicting public figures, following public requests from the daughters of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robin Williams to cease creating videos of their deceased fathers.

The advocacy group Fairplay expressed concerns about the Disney-OpenAI agreement, arguing that the integration of popular characters could attract young users to the platform despite OpenAI's stated prohibition against children using Sora.

Safety Efforts and Industry Context

Prior to the discontinuation announcement, OpenAI had detailed efforts to enhance app safety. A blog post titled "Creating with Sora safely," published the day before the shutdown announcement, outlined measures to improve safety for teenagers and implement stronger safeguards against harmful content, including sexual material, terrorist propaganda, and self-harm promotion.

The broader generative AI video industry continues to operate, with some platforms facing accusations of copyright infringement from Hollywood studios. Disney, prior to the OpenAI partnership announcement, had issued cease-and-desist demands to other AI companies like Google, Meta, and Character.AI, and filed lawsuits against Midjourney and Minimax over alleged copyright infringement. ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 AI system also drew legal threats, leading to promises from ByteDance to implement additional safeguards against unauthorized IP use.