OpenAI plans to shut down its popular-for-a-hot-second Sora video app, as the company says it's looking to narrow its focus and its human and computer resources.

Why it matters: OpenAI is prioritizing capital, chips and enterprise products over experimental bets as it faces increased competition from Anthropic and Google.

The big picture: Sora was consuming significant compute.

• All the frontier AI companies are dealing with a shortage of processing power for both their research and commercial efforts.
• The iOS app, API and Sora.com experience will all be shut down, though an exact timeline has yet to be announced.

What they're saying: Sora's research team will continue "to focus on world simulation research to advance robotics that will help people solve real-world, physical tasks," an OpenAI spokesperson told Axios.

• The company said it will share details soon on when the app and API will disappear and how people can preserve the AI videos they made.

Between the lines: The move is a stark reversal for Sora.

• The original Sora model debuted in early 2024, and then the company created a separate app in September 2025 that allowed people to insert themselves into the short videos.
• "With Sora 2, we are jumping straight to what we think may be the GPT-3.5 moment for video," the company said at the time.
• OpenAI envisioned using AI video to kickstart an AI-era social network around sharing creations. The app rose to the top of the charts on Apple's App Store and reached a million downloads faster than ChatGPT.
• By January, downloads had plunged 45%, per TechCrunch.

Zoom in: Sora also led to intense conversations with content creators and, eventually, to the announcement of a landmark deal with Disney licensing more than 200 of its characters for use in AI video and agreeing to invest $1 billion in OpenAI.

• The deal is now off. OpenAI is winding down its work with Disney and no money ever changed hands, according to a source familiar with the situation.

State of play: OpenAI disclosed the changes to employees yesterday.

• Oversight of safety and security efforts will shift from CEO Sam Altman to other executives so that Altman can focus his efforts on raising capital and securing data centers and other computing resources, per The Information.
• Chief research officer Mark Chen will have responsibility for safety work, while president Greg Brockman will oversee security efforts, The Information reported.
• Meanwhile, the company has completed initial development for "Spud," its next major family of AI models, also per The Information.

What we're watching: Video is seen as a key ingredient for so-called "world models" that understand how objects interact in the physical world — a key to work in robotics and other areas.

• OpenAI said work in those areas will continue.

A federal judge yesterday called the Pentagon's treatment of Anthropic "troubling" as the AI company urged the court to pause the Trump administration's designation of the company as a supply chain risk.

Why it matters: The Trump administration is looking to remove Claude from federal agencies and prevent companies that do business with the Pentagon from working with the AI lab.

• Agencies have started to take action, and Anthropic says some companies are rethinking contracts.

What they're saying: "I don't know if it's murder, but it looks like an attempt to cripple Anthropic," said U.S. District Judge Rita Lin.

• Lin referred to three Trump administration actions: President Trump's ban on Anthropic, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's requirement that Pentagon contractors cut commercial ties with the company, and Anthropic's designation as a supply chain risk.
• "What is troubling to me about these three actions is that they don't really seem to be tailored to the stated national security concern. If the worry is about the integrity of the operational chain of command, [the Pentagon] could just stop using Claude," she said.

Driving the news: Anthropic is seeking to pause the designation, block its enforcement by federal agencies, and roll back actions already taken.

• Anthropic argues that the court should restore the status quo from before the designation occurred, while the case — including First Amendment and procurement law claims — is litigated.
• The company says that would help ease ongoing reputational damage and provide commercial partners more certainty.

Friction point: Essentially, the company argues, there should be a return to the status quo as of Feb. 26, before Trump and Hegseth said on social media that Anthropic would "immediately" be blacklisted.

• The Pentagon's lawyer argued that the social media posts are not legally binding.
• The judge said she found that argument "pretty surprising ... obviously the statement is front and center in this lawsuit."

The Pentagon argues in court filings that Anthropic has asked for an "operational veto" of the Pentagon's decision-making and that Anthropic has full control over Claude's availability and performance.

• Department officials say that would be inappropriate and dangerous in sensitive operations.
• Anthropic denies it has operational control over the model once deployed in classified settings.

What's next: Anthropic asked for a decision by March 26, but the court is not bound by that date.

OpenAI is pushing deeper into shopping with ChatGPT, as retailers like Walmart and Gap split on who should control checkout.

Why it matters: The storefront may be shifting from websites to AI chats — but early indicators suggest shoppers still prefer to hit "buy" the old-fashioned way.

Driving the news: OpenAI yesterday announced new shopping features in ChatGPT focused on product discovery, letting users browse, compare and refine purchases conversationally.

• Gap, meanwhile, said it is making its products available to purchase directly within Gemini and AI-powered search, using Google's new commerce protocol.

Zoom out: Other retailers are holding onto more control — allowing users to browse in AI chats, then complete purchases on their own site.

• Walmart is among them, moving to embed its own AI assistant, "Sparky," within ChatGPT and Gemini.
• Sephora is also launching a ChatGPT app that integrates loyalty programs and personalized recommendations, with in-app checkout planned for the future.

Reality check: The shift is still early — and results are mixed.

Keep reading.

• A jury in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $375 million for failing to protect children from online predators. (CNBC)
• Apple plans to show off a revamped Siri at its June developer conference, including a chatbot-style interface. (Bloomberg)
• Arm, whose chip designs are widely used by other semiconductor firms, announced it is making its own chip for the AI market. (NYT)

I hadn't really used Sora in months, but oddly enough I used it this past weekend when Harvey suggested tossing bread into a toaster should be an Olympic event.

But I'll let Sora have the last word about Sora.