OpenAI is in talks to license its Sora video model to a stealth startup backed by Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg and former Sora lead Bill Peebles. The startup plans to turn the model into dedicated filmmaking software, while OpenAI takes an equity stake to salvage returns on its heavy compute investments.
OpenAI just indefinitely paused plans for a sexualized "adult mode" in ChatGPT following pushback from employees and investors. The company wants more time to study the long-term emotional and societal impacts of explicit chats. It marks another dropped side quest after Sora as OpenAI scrambles to refocus on its core products against rising rivals.
OpenAI is reportedly pulling the plug on Sora and all related video products, freeing up compute for its upcoming flagship model 'Spud'. The video team will pivot to robotics world simulation, leaving Disney's $1B partnership on ice. Basically, Sam Altman is ditching resource-heavy side quests to double down on the core frontier race.
OpenAI just announced it is discontinuing its video generation model Sora. The web and mobile apps will go offline on April 26, 2026, with the API shutting down on September 24. Users need to export their creations before data is permanently deleted; unused credits can be applied to Codex.
The Sora team just announced that it is saying goodbye to the platform, confirming plans to shut down both its app and API. The team acknowledged the disappointing news, thanked the creator community, and promised to release a concrete timeline along with details on preserving existing user projects soon.
OpenAI just announced it's shutting down its standalone Sora AI video app only months after launch. In response, Disney is walking away from a $1 billion investment and IP licensing agreement signed last December. While video features will live on inside ChatGPT, the sudden shutdown leaves Google in a dominant position in the generative video race.
OpenAI is reportedly planning to integrate its Sora video generator directly into ChatGPT, according to The Information. The move mirrors last year's rollout of built-in image creation, aiming to win back users amid stiff competition from Claude, though it could also spike operating costs and deepen deepfake concerns.
OpenAI just hired Instagram’s longtime partnerships VP Charles Porch to serve as its first-ever VP of global creative partnerships. Porch spent 15 years at Meta wooing icons like Beyoncé and Pope Francis. He is tasked with bridging the trust gap with Hollywood and securing likeness licensing deals for Sora.
A federal judge just ordered OpenAI to stop using the name "Cameo" across its products, ruling in favor of the celebrity video platform. OpenAI had used the moniker for a Sora feature that lets users insert digital likenesses of themselves into AI videos. The court found the term caused genuine user confusion and rejected OpenAI's claim that it was purely descriptive, though OpenAI had already quietly rebranded the tool to "Characters."
ByteDance just promised to strengthen guardrails on its new AI video generator, Seedance 2.0, following intense pushback from Hollywood. The Motion Picture Association, along with studios like Disney and Paramount, accused the tool of massive copyright infringement and issued cease-and-desist letters. ByteDance says it is now working to prevent unauthorized use of protected IP and likenesses.
OpenAI just detailed a custom real-time access engine for Codex and Sora that stops rate limits from cutting off user momentum. Instead of hitting a hard wall when allowances run out, requests seamlessly tap into pre-purchased credits mid-flight. Why it matters: By combining instant limits with provably auditable async billing, OpenAI keeps creators and coders in their flow without the risk of double-charging.
OpenAI just detailed the design principles behind the Sora video feed, aiming to inspire active creation rather than endless, passive scrolling. The feed features steerable ranking so users can dictate what they see, integrates ChatGPT parental controls for teens, and leans on multi-layered safety guardrails to filter harmful generations.
OpenAI just updated its Model Spec with Under-18 Principles, setting strict boundaries for how ChatGPT interacts with 13-to-17-year-olds. The rules crack down on romantic roleplay and self-harm topics while pushing real-world support, backed by an age prediction model that defaults unverified accounts to teen mode. It is a critical move to build guardrails before regulators force their hand.
OpenAI and Google just slashed free usage limits for Sora and Nano Banana Pro after surging holiday demand overwhelmed their compute. Sora free users are now capped at six video generations a day, while Google reduced image generations to two daily and restricted Gemini 3 Pro access. Basically, running frontier video and image models is so expensive that even the tech giants are feeling the squeeze.
OpenAI just got hit with a temporary restraining order blocking it from using the word "cameo" inside its Sora app. Celebrity video platform Cameo claimed trademark infringement over Sora’s likeness-swapping feature, and a federal judge agreed to pause OpenAI's usage through December 22. OpenAI is pushing back, arguing no single company can exclusively own the everyday term.
CraftStory, an AI startup founded by OpenCV's creators, just emerged from stealth with $2 million in funding and Model 2.0, an AI system that generates coherent human videos up to five minutes long. Using a parallelized diffusion architecture, it processes full video durations simultaneously to prevent accumulated visual artifacts. Why it matters: Long-form AI video has remained elusive, and CraftStory aims to turn AI clips into viable full-length tutorials and marketing demos.
OpenAI just issued a joint apology after Sora 2 generated unauthorized deepfakes of Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston, including one posing with Michael Jackson. The company promised to strengthen guardrails around voice and likeness opt-ins, while SAG-AFTRA is using the incident to push for federal anti-cloning legislation.
OpenAI just blocked users from generating AI videos of Martin Luther King Jr. in Sora following requests from Dr. King's estate. The move comes after users generated offensive and disrespectful depictions of the civil rights icon on the newly launched app. OpenAI confirmed that authorized representatives of public figures can now opt out of Sora cameos.
OpenAI just formed the Expert Council on Well-Being and AI, recruiting top researchers in psychology, psychiatry, and human-computer interaction to guide ChatGPT and Sora. The council focuses heavily on teen development and healthy boundaries, building on early work that refined parental controls and distress notifications.
OpenAI just introduced new Cameo restrictions in Sora, letting users set custom rules on how others can generate videos with their likeness—like blocking political commentary or specific words. The update also improves watermark visibility, tunes safety moderation, and fixes an annoying bug that tied Sora account deletion directly to ChatGPT.
