“I felt terrible…,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on killing Sora

In a surprising turn of events, OpenAI announced on March 24 the discontinuation of its text-to-video generation tool, Sora, just six months after its debut. This decision not only shocked users but also led to the termination of a $1 billion partnership with The Walt Disney Company, aimed at integrating beloved characters into the platform. In a recent appearance on iHeartPodcasts’ "Mostly Human," hosted by tech journalist Laurie Segall, OpenAI's Chief Executive Sam Altman shared insights into the reasoning behind this difficult move. According to Altman, the decision stemmed from the company's need to refocus its resources on developing the next generation of automated technologies. "We needed to concentrate our compute and our product capacity into these next generation of automated researchers and companies," he explained, emphasizing the strategic shift away from Sora. Altman expressed his fondness for Sora and the collaboration with Disney, stating, "I love Sora. I love generated videos and I love our partnership with Disney, and we’re working hard with them to find a world where they can still do something amazing and we can help with that." He also recounted a poignant conversation with Disney's new CEO, Josh D'Amaro, who expressed understanding yet shared the disappointment that such a decision brings. Altman admitted, "It’s super sad always to disappoint a partner or users or a team, all of which are doing incredible work." Additionally, Altman discussed the potential for integrating Sora into ChatGPT but ultimately decided against it, citing concerns about fostering addictive behaviors reminiscent of social media platforms. He referred to this as a "very tough resourcing call," indicating the complexities involved in prioritizing projects within the fast-evolving tech landscape. Reflecting on the unexpected trajectory of developments within OpenAI, Altman noted, "I did not expect three or six months ago to be at this point we’re at now, where something very big and important is about to happen again with this next generation of models and the agents they can power."