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On Tuesday, news emerged that OpenAI was canning its chaotic and controversial text-to-video AI app, Sora.
The app, which was announced to much fanfare late last year, has struggled to retain users, with downloads plummeting. The stream of uninspired AI slop wasn’t just and rife with copyright-infringing material— the costs to keep it running were also enormous, even for a company the size of OpenAI.
In short, we can think of a litany of reasons why OpenAI may have chosen to ditch its distasteful slop generator, especially now that investors are starting to ask questions ahead of the company’s rumored IPO later this year.
Caught up in the multi-billion-dollar misstep is entertainment conglomerate Disney, which signed what was supposed to be a groundbreaking $1 billion deal with OpenAI in December. As a source familiar with the matter told The Hollywood Reporter, the media giant has now pulled out of the licensing agreement, which would’ve allowed users to generate AI videos using more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar characters.
“As the nascent AI field advances rapidly, we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere,” a Disney spokesperson told the publication. “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.”
The abrupt end to the blockbuster deal certainly raises questions. Did OpenAI’s discontinuation of Sora force Disney out of the deal, or did Disney get cold feet first? Given the tone of its spokesperson’s statement, the former explanation appears to be more likely.
Reading the tea leaves for Disney’s AI future is challenging. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was replaced by the company’s new leader and longtime Disney exec Josh D’Amaro last week, made it clear that the company was looking to shoehorn AI-generated content into its Disney+ experience.
How D’Amaro feels about the initiative remains to be seen. In an introductory memo, obtained by Business Insider, D’Amaro said he was looking to embrace tech to “help us create more immersive, interactive, and personal ways for people to experience Disney.”
While OpenAI isn’t pulling out of AI video entirely, as the Reporter points out, shutting its flashy app a mere five months into its chaotic existence speaks volumes about the state of the industry and its attempts to bring consumer-facing AI tools to market.
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