OpenAI will shut down its AI video app. It's focusing on the essentials ahead of its IPO - WSJ

OpenAI announced that it is shutting down Sora, a short video creation app using artificial intelligence that launched just six months ago and quickly went viral, reaching 1 million downloads in less than five days.

"We're saying goodbye to Sora," OpenAI said in a post on social network X. - To everyone who created [videos] with Sora, shared content, and built a community around it: thank you. What you did mattered, and we realize this news will be disappointing."

This is one of the measures the company is taking to focus on business and software functions ahead of a possible IPO in the fourth quarter of this year, The Wall Street Journal writes. It is winding down some costly projects in an effort to cut expenses to justify a $730 billion valuation, CNBC explains.

At the launch of Sora, some OpenAI employees were surprised at how much computing resources were involved in the project, given the lack of clear signs of sustained demand, WSJ notes. According to the publication, in addition to the custom application, OpenAI will also close the developer version of Sora and will not support video features within ChatGPT.

The WSJ reported as recently as last week that the company plans to abandon its "do everything at once" approach and focus on its core business ahead of a potential listing. The new strategy eliminates a complex organizational structure and competing priorities. At a recent meeting with employees, OpenAI's head of applications Fiji Xi said the startup can't afford to be distracted by "side quests" and set a course to develop so-called agent-based capabilities, i.e. systems that can run autonomously on a user's computer and perform various tasks.

Last week, OpenAI announced that it will combine the ChatGPT desktop application, Codex programming tool and browser into a single "super application." This consolidated product is expected to help build a unified strategy.

The decision is due to increased competition, primarily from Anthropic, whose code and business products are rapidly gaining popularity. Unlike OpenAI, this company relies on a narrow focus, the publication pointed out.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor