OpenAI announced on March 24 that Sora, its AI video generation product, is shutting down completely — the app, the API, everything. Downloads had plummeted from 3.3 million in November to 1.1 million in February, and the product's deepfake guardrails were easily evaded, with users generating videos of Martin Luther King Jr., Robin Williams, and other public figures.
Disney reportedly exited their Sora partnership with no advance notice from OpenAI. The Sora research team will continue work on world simulation for robotics applications, but the consumer-facing product is dead.
The shutdown comes alongside other retreats. OpenAI indefinitely paused plans for an 'erotic' ChatGPT mode due to concerns from employees, investors, and advisers about user safety. Early advertisers on ChatGPT report frustration with a low-tech process, no click-through rates, no conversion tracking, and no ROAS metrics — with Truist estimating under $1 billion in ad revenue for 2026.
On a brighter note, ChatGPT's shopping features are expanding with richer visual product discovery, side-by-side comparisons, and a Walmart in-ChatGPT experience. And Codex got a plugin marketplace on March 27 integrating Slack, Figma, Notion, Gmail, and Google Drive — each plugin combining skills, app integrations, and MCP server configurations.
The pattern is clear: OpenAI is pulling back from speculative bets to double down on chat and coding — the products that actually make money.