DaveOnC17h ago
Bridget

I don’t buy that OpenAI abruptly decided to shutdown Sora because they have something better coming soon, but I have to guesses as to why:

  • They found out it’s being used for something really bad and they might be held liable

  • They’re trying to get ahead of growing anti-AI backlash and are trying to present themselves as less “sloppy” since a lot more of the backlash is targeted at generated images and video.

  • The AI bubble is bursting and video generation is one of the more expensive parts of their business and they’re trying to cut costs.

    • Mar 26 at 1:31pmWeb
    Show threadBridget1d ago
  • After they paid Disney a buttload of money to use their characters, a lot of other companies were coming after them for the same deal and there’s no way would have been able to afford that at scale and the existence of any such deals makes copyright lawsuits against them much more likely to win.
    • Show threadBridget18h ago
    I suppose it’s also possible that the Anthropic settlement with authors has them worried AI tools that are almost entirely being used to rip off creative works are a huge liability. Sure ChatGPT is also chock full of copyrighted content, but I assuming they’re hoping that the infringement there is less obvious.
    Show threadBridget17h ago
    Basically they may realize Sora is basically Napster or Limewire, but are hoping they can pass off ChatGPT as a VCR.
    Show threadcatgirl.mae 16h ago

    @bridget

    Agree with all points. Everyone wants to be Amazon at the end of the Dotcom Bubble. But this isn't 2001 and history doesn't repeat. I think they all come out with way too much unused Cloud Compute and no one to sell it to.

    Show threadJeff Triplett1d ago
    @bridget @brass75 not that matters, but I was told they put a billion into the product and only grossed $10 to $20 million in revenue since it launched. It was a complete market flop. Everything else is up for speculation, but they are still revenue-driven more than any reputation concerns.
    Show threadDarth Osler17h ago
    @bridget please tell me it's D: all of the above
    Show threadThad17h ago
    @bridget I suspect Disney was already preparing to back out of their deal and that would have cost them a lot of money and legitimacy.
    Show threadFluffy Kitty Cat17h ago
    @bridget I'm going with 3 with 1 being a second possibility
    Show threadsolo17h ago
    @bridget the 3rd one is definitely the case, but it might also be the other two as well
    Show threadsolo17h ago

    @bridget each video generation was costing like >$1 to my understanding, which is CRAZY huge compared to the cost of text generation

    and they were giving that shit away for free iirc

    Show threadKevin Karhan 17h ago
    @bridget or all of the beforementioned together…
    Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK17h ago

    @kkarhan @bridget

    I think the AI's are trying to ration the cost of processing images/videos, when I experimented with Copilot if I tried to get it to do basic image work it often seemed to deliberately not put in the effort (and make up excuses for not doing so), and when asked for info about myself even with access to my LinkedIn couldn't accurately identify the year of the car I drive even though there's a picture of it on my timeline, it was clearly ignoring the image (which is an instant clue to when it was made, as the appearance of the front end trim is different between Mk7 and Mk8 VW Golf)

    Show threadsomeguyonmastodon17h ago

    @bridget

    4. They're freeing up compute for the DoD. OpenAI signed a contract with the Pentagon on February 28th to deploy models on classified networks. This is the same contract Anthropic got designated a 'supply chain risk' for walking away from because the DoD wouldn't guarantee against mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. Sora was burning $15M a day in compute and made $2.1M in its entire lifetime. A defense contract is worth $200M+ with guaranteed government money behind it. They didn't kill Sora because they have something better coming. They killed it because every GPU running Sora is a GPU not running classified inference for the military. OpenAI said it themselves, the shutdown was about 'compute reallocation.' The timeline speaks for itself.

    Show threadNagaram17h ago

    @bridget

    I'm pretty convinced they learned the Vine lesson, but worse.

    Storing and hosting video is CRAZY expensive. And its so much worse when some dickhead can say "video please!" Then fill another 5-10 gigs of space.

    The bubble is certainly popping, but also this was always crazy dumb

    Show threadMatt Rife17h ago
    @bridget I'm also going with option 3. The whole data center/compute industry seems to be a house of cards and sooner or later the circular deals are gonna collapse. I'm betting on "sooner."
    Show threadRachel Cholst16h ago
    @bridget if they cared about how people used it they would have done something about it long ago. I think they're simply broke af
    Show threadXenagain16h ago
    @bridget I just assumed they were closing it to funnel resources into “defense” models instead. Everyone without a conscience knows that is where the real money is.
    Show threadAzuaron16h ago
    @bridget Given that Altman said advertising would be their "last resort", and they're rolling out advertising, I think we're seeing the beginning of the end of OpenAI.