OpenAI will discontinue Sora, its controversial artificial intelligence video generation app.
The company announced the decision on social media, but details as to why OpenAI shut down the Sora mobile app were slim.
"We're saying goodbye to Sora," OpenAI's post on X read. "To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it, thank you.
"We'll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work."
The app allowed users to generate short videos that placed themselves and others almost anywhere, doing almost anything. It quickly rose to near the top of mobile download charts when it was released last year. But growth levelled out in the months that followed.
The app's debut drew the ire of the entertainment industry, which highlighted possible theft of intellectual property.
Several actors and the families of deceased public officials complained that their identities had been used without consent.
OpenAI vowed to make tweaks to prevent the misuse of Sora, but anger remained in various industry circles as speculation grew as to what content it was trained on and if it had the proper permission to do so.
Concern about deepfakes abounded as well, and even though OpenAI placed a watermark on videos generated by Sora, tools soon emerged to eliminate this.
A deal was reached with Disney at one point so that some of the company's intellectual property could be used with Sora but it is not clear what, if anything, will still come to fruition as OpenAI phases out the app.
