After the announement late last year of a deal in which Disney pledged to invest $1 billion in OpenAI and license some of its characters for use in the Sora video app, OpenAI have decided to shut down Sora just a few short months after it was launched, leaving Disney with a decision – which company will it now target as their next AI partner?
the closure of the app also raises questions for Disney, which inked a blockbuster deal to invest in OpenAI last December, in exchange for adding some of its characters to Sora. The goal, of course, was to integrate the tech into Disney+ itself.
Now the OpenAI deal is dead, though the company could ink a deal with another AI giant.
“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 said. “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.”